I think what you want to know is “what is the sources that make up the Bible.” Right?
Languages that were originally used in transmission of the Scriptures range from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. It is much more complex then just a certain language, but our Bibles are translated from ancient manuscripts.
The New Testament was mostly written in Greek, originally. But there are some isolated instances of Syriac/Christian Aramaic. And Matthew was written in Hebrew early on, but there are no manuscript evidence of it, but just documented by Eusebius. But Koine Greek was the most widely used dialect for the NT Scriptures. And our Bibles are translated from either 1) ancient manuscripts such as the Vaticanus 2) or edited Greek texts that use an eclectic approach by using a variety of manuscirpts and using the variances. There are great works such as what was done by Reuben Swanson who lined 45 of the best NT Greek manuscirpts in horizontal lines to compare them.
The OT comes from originally Hebrew and Aramaic. And the oldest OT manuscripts come from the Dead Sea Scrolls. They date back to about 250BC. The Greek Septuagint was the first translation of the OT, and it was the official text of the early Church, and quoted by the authors of the NT when they quoted the OT.
But beware! Many of the translations of the OT come from the Masoretic Text, which are Hebrew. That sounds good considering the original OT was mostly Hebrew. But the catch is this, and it is a biggy. The Masoretic Text only dates back to about 1000AD. That is 1000 years after the Christian movement. And they differ in many places from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Greek Septuagint, which date back much further then the Masoretic Text. And it is believed that the Masoretic Text is a Pharisee revision. And it is very sad that many translations have depended soley upon the Masoretic text for it’s OT platform.
My suggestion to you is this. If you don’t learn Greek, then learn as much about textual criticism as you can. It is very complex, and may take years to grasp, but a deep study of it will bring to light how the Bible was put together. Just type in textual critism on your search engine. The Catholic Encylopedia may have some things about it.
Also, there are some resources I recommend. I have “The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible,” it is an English translation of the Biblical books from the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is really good! Also, if you can get a Greek NT, either an interlinear or a Greek NT with a dictionary, then it can be a very helpful tool to descern Scripture.
But here is what I believe about English translations. I study Greek, and have done some translating myself in the past, and I have found that the NAB is very very accurate as far as the NT goes. The OT is not that great. But I have a Greek Septuagint version from Brenton, who has the Greek on one side and his English translation on the other-side of the page. So between the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible and the Greek Septuagint, I feel I can’t go wrong with the OT. I don;t know Hebrew, so I have to use an English translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. But I do know Greek and can use the Septuagint. If the Septuagint was good enough for the NT authors to quote from, then I guess I can feel safe enough to use it.
