What language(s) did Jesus speak?

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FrDavid96 said:
I’m not so sure about the ability to speak Hebrew.

He certainly knew the language. But it was the language of prayer. Being able to read the Prophets or sing the Psalms (which we know He did) doesn’t always lead to having the ability to actually carry on a conversation in that language.
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I’m a polyglot, was a career linguist in government service before I retired, and am an overall language geek. I think we’re looking at two different skill definitions here. From my point of view, if I can read a page of text out loud without resorting to a dictionary every other word, and my listeners can understand what I’m saying, I’m speaking the language. It may be that nobody in those days actually spoke Hebrew, in the sense of carrying on conversations, but they did speak it out loud, and their fellow scribes, priests, rebbes, etc. understood them.

In any case, I’m okay with having different definitions 😃

D
 
DaveBj said:
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FrDavid96:
I’m not so sure about the ability to speak Hebrew.

He certainly knew the language. But it was the language of prayer. Being able to read the Prophets or sing the Psalms (which we know He did) doesn’t always lead to having the ability to actually carry on a conversation in that language.
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I’m a polyglot, was a career linguist in government service before I retired, and am an overall language geek. I think we’re looking at two different skill definitions here. From my point of view, if I can read a page of text out loud without resorting to a dictionary every other word, and my listeners can understand what I’m saying, I’m speaking the language. It may be that nobody in those days actually spoke Hebrew, in the sense of carrying on conversations, but they did speak it out loud, and their fellow scribes, priests, rebbes, etc. understood them.

In any case, I’m okay with having different definitions 😃

D
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Sure.

I’d be perfectly content striking “speak” from whatever I wrote earlier and replace it with something like “converse.”
 
Did He have any remunerative employment, e.g. as a Carpenter?
 
Lifeisbeautiful3 said:
Did He have any remunerative employment, e.g. as a Carpenter?
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Probably not. He travelled too much. At least once His public ministry began at age 30.

There’s a line in one of the Gospels (I think it was just read recently at daily Mass) that there were certain wealthy women who supported (financed) Christ and the Twelve.

Carpentry would have been near impossible. He would have had to carry all those heavy tools around the region.
 
But before his public ministry, he likely had a trade. He did have a home in Capernaum after all.
 
normdplume said:
Years ago I read that Jesus spoke Aramaic, although I don’t recall where, so I looked it up again tonight. The following site argues quite persuasively that it was primarily Hebrew: https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Articles/Jesus_Hebrew/jesus_hebrew.html

Is there still a debate on this, or is Hebrew correct?
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At the time Hebrew was for the most part a dead language. The common dialect in Palestine at the time was Aramaic, but was frequently referred to as Hebrew by the early church fathers interchangeably. He also likely spoke Greek. The vast majority of the time the Bible is quoted from the Greek translation of the OT called the Septuagint, so it is reasonable to assume that Jesus and the disciples spoke Koine (Marketplace) Greek fluently.
 
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He may have also spoken a bit of Arabic or Egyptian as he did spend time in Egypt as a child.
 
Very good point, although the Holy Family likely lived with a community of the Jewish Dispora in Egypt and were rather segregated from Egyption society. So maybe not.
 
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TheLittleLady said:
He may have also spoken a bit of Arabic or Egyptian as he did spend time in Egypt as a child.
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He did, but there was a huge Jewish community in Alexandria, and that’s probably where the Holy Family went. He might never have seen an actual native Egyptian.

Edit: Oops, @tafan2, didn’t see that you had already replied. Sorry.

D
 
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TheLittleLady said:
He may have also spoken a bit of Arabic or Egyptian as he did spend time in Egypt as a child.
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Arabic is actually a later dialect of Aramaic. It would not yet exist for a few more centuries.

Egyptian? The Holy Family returned when He was about 4.

According to Tradition, they moved around Egypt quite a bit, finally settling in Cairo.

Here’s a link to a wiki article
https://orthodoxwiki.org/The_Holy_Family_in_Egypt

There’s a map that was approved by Pope Shenouda, that would at least be accurate according to Tradition (if not history as such).
 
TK421 said:
He spoke English …
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There are some fundamentalists out there (I just happened across one a few days ago) who think that the King James Bible is the original one, and come rather close to thinking that He actually did speak English.
 
For the curious

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

It is labeled as: “Official map of the Holy Family journey in Egypt signed by HH Pope Shenouda III”

Although we should not trust wiki articles, I suppose the image itself is accurate (yes, Pope Shenouda approved it), whether or not the information on the map is accurate, I’ll leave to the reader to decide.

And I’ll mention to people not to dismiss their Tradition too easily.
 
FrDavid96 said:
who think that the King James Bible is the original one
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Original as in the OT Jews (and forebearers), NT Gospels writers, St. Paul, St. Peter, ECT. literally wrote the Bible in English?
Or original as in first English translation?
Or as in the original was in Hebrew/Greek/ECT. and the KJV translation was divinely inspired to be a perfect translation?
 
They really believe the Bible was written in English? Even the Old Testament?
 
Seagull said:
Maybe Jesus had a interpreter ! 😆
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😂😂

I had a mental Image of Jesus delivering the Beatitudes with one of those hand sign interpreters they always have during big news conferences on TV at His side…
 
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mVitus said:
Original as in the OT Jews (and forebearers), NT Gospels writers, St. Paul, St. Peter, ECT. literally wrote the Bible in English?
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There are some fundamentalists out there (and not a small number either) who behave as if that were the case.
Or original as in first English translation?
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Yes, many certainly do think this.
Many other Christians (including some Catholics and even non-Christians) would also say that the KJV was the first English translation; if asked the question. They might not consider the question itself important, but there is a common misconception in the English speaking world that the KJV was the first in English.
Or as in the original was in Hebrew/Greek/ECT. and the KJV translation was divinely inspired to be a perfect translation?
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Although they might not use those same words: many fundamentalists do have the sentiment that the KJV is somehow a perfect English translation and is the only reliable one. Then again, some of them might indeed use those same words.

Of course, what they don’t know is that what they think to be “the” KJV is a later, modern translation. If they picked up an actual, authentic, original KJV, they’d hardly recognize it.
 
tafan2 said:
They really believe the Bible was written in English? Even the Old Testament?
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It isn’t so much that, as it is a an absence of considering the question at all.

To them, the KJV is “the Bible in English.” And that’s all that matters.

In the extreme, it is almost as if the Hebrew or Greek (etc.) texts of the bible were just ancient translations of the KJV written in the original languages only because English had not yet been invented.

It can be amazing sometimes. I’ve known quite a few very extreme fundamentalists in my time. I’ve had several occasions where I’ve said something along the lines of “they didn’t speak English in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago” and the reaction I see is one of “I never thought about that before (long thoughtful pause) but I suppose that’s true.”

It happens a lot when someone asks me “why do people call you ‘Father’ because the Bible says ‘call no man Father’?” I might respond with “Christ didn’t speak English, so He never used the word father” The response is that yes, He did, it says so right in the Bible. When I ask “what do you call the man married to your mother?” they’ll say something like “dad or daddy or papa, etc.” So my next question is to ask what’s the difference between the words father and dad? The answer is that “the bible says” father, it doesn’t say dad.

Eventually, we get to the point where I ask what would have happened if the KJV said “call no man daddy?” instead and that’s the clincher. It sounds like some kind of blasphemy to them to think that there could have been an alternate translation. Put another way: since the KJV says ‘father’ that’s exactly what God intended to say, He just said it in some ancient language. They’ll say outright “the bible doesn’t say call no man daddy.” Predictably, when I ask “what’s the difference between the two words?” The answer is “the bible says father, and therefore that’s the difference.”

Keep in mind, I’m not writing about all fundamentalists here. But there are quite a few out there who think that the KJV is “the” bible and the only real one.
 
Well, my son began speaking before he was a year old. By age 4 he would have conversations with other people. Little kids absorb language like sponges.

Anyway, I feel comfortable believing that Christ could speak any language He needed to speak, and understood all languages.
 
FrDavid96 said:
It is labeled as: “Official map of the Holy Family journey in Egypt signed by HH Pope Shenouda III”
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As I understand it Popes Shenouda (all three of them) were patriarchs of the Coptic Church, not the Universal Church as we Latin Catholics would understand the title “Pope”. Am I on the right track?
 
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