I just became introduced to a Roman Catholic who speaks like 5-7 different languages I look forward to picking her brain she is coming over tonight. Is there something specific you want an answer to?
Well, I think the most logical place would be to start with Koine Greek. That is the language the Gospel was originally written in and in which the Early Church communicated and worshipped. While Jesus spoke Aramaic (Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, to be precise), which is not a version of Hebrew but a separate language not intelligible to a Hebrew speaker, the first record of what he actually said is in Greek.
And it is not that difficult – I’d say that with reasonable effort, it might take you a year or so to be able to understand the Gospel using a dictionary and to be aware of the translation differences. Most courses and texts probably focus on Attic Greek, which is yet about 500 years older, but that’s not really a problem – the languages are different, but not hugely so.
Also, English in its early forms really dates to about 550 – it’s not a modern language.
Most modern translations are more reliable than older versions; it tended to be a bible was translated and re translated several times (most translations up to 1600 went from Greek, to Latin and then occasionally to another vernacular tongue) or was edited to make for more poetic prose as was the case of the King James Version. Today because of discoveries of far older Greek documents scholars today can translate from the original Koine Greek missing out the re-translation process entirely.
He would have spoken aramaic yes. Due to Greek being the lingua franca of the Roman Empire at the time, not Latin surprisingly enough, many Jews could also speak Greek if not read it. Due to Jesus traditionally being held to be part of the artisan caste due to being a carpenter the odds are he would have needed it to be able to communicate with his/Josephs wealthier and more cosmopolitan patrons considering the strongly hellenic influence in the royal house of Antipas at the time.
I think this is really a case where you’d need several and a lot of time on your hands. I personally started using Free Online Bible Classes | Biblical Greek before I began pursuing it seriously; it would give you a taste for the field to see if you really want to devote the hours it will drain
I’ve heard that too, from the idea that Jesus was a lower manual laborer. Nazareth was for want of a better term a shanty town, and for actual work the likelyhood is he would have needed to spend a great deal of time on sites of construction like that of the great project of Sepphoris requiring many laborers at the the time.
It’s more probable I think, since while not vastly higher Carpenters were above general laborers in terms of affluence so residency in Nazareth away from clients seems unusual but Carpenter is the traditional and more typical historical depiction of Jesus (with no comment on its authenticity made).
The ones I find valuable are those which explain differences between U.K. English and American English. I suppose Australian English books are out there somewhere.
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