Why does Latin have such a special place in the Church when Jesus spoke Aramaic?

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Its the language of the Roman Church. If you were a member of an Armenian Rite Church, or a Byzantine Catholic Church, you would find Armenian or Greek take the precedent, respectivly.

Most religions have a language reserved for worship- Muslims have Arabic, Hindus have Sanskrit, Jews have Hebrew, etc.
 
Because at no time did very much of the Christian world speak Aramaic.
 
It might have made sense but I guess Aramaic just didn’t catch on. Don’t forget, it wasn’t only the Church that held a special place for Greek and then Latin.
 
It is interesting to note that in the time of Christ, Hebrew was almost exclusively reserved for use in the rites of the Temple and the Synagogues. Aramaic was the common language, though most in the region of Palestine knew Greek and even some basic Latin.
 
Perhaps because St. Peter was in Rome where the Latin language was used? When in Rome, do as the Romans do. 😉
 
VociMike said:
Because at no time did very much of the Christian world speak Aramaic.
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WRONG!

Aramaic was very much spoken by Christians throughout the Middle East and into India.

The empire, being Greco-Roman centric, however, ignored this fact as much as possible, though the steady stream of translations from the Aramaic (Ephraim the Syrian, Bar Hebraeus, etc.) belie this.
 
Isa_Almisry said:
WRONG!
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No need to shout.
Aramaic was very much spoken by Christians throughout the Middle East and into India.
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What percentage of the entire Christian world was “very much”?

And was not the choice of Greek for the New Testament in some fashion also an inspired choice?
 
marymonde said:
Perhaps because St. Peter was in Rome where the Latin language was used? When in Rome, do as the Romans do. 😉
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When St. Peter was in Rome the Christian Romans were speaking Greek, which they would do exclusively until Pope Victor, who introduced Latin. Pope Damasus would promulgate the Latin mass centuries after St. Peter. We have no proof St. Peter spoke Latin. We know he spoke Aramaic and Greek.
 
Isa_Almisry said:
When St. Peter was in Rome the Christian Romans were speaking Greek, which they would do exclusively until Pope Victor, who introduced Latin. Pope Damasus would promulgate the Latin mass centuries after St. Peter. We have no proof St. Peter spoke Latin. We know he spoke Aramaic and Greek.
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In those days, no doubt many people were speaking many languages. And we have today many Latin works in classic literature. How can one claim Christ or any of His apostes knew absolutely nothing in Latin? Were they all ignorant? Did they all not know anyone who spoke Latin? Are we absolutely sure Christ didn’t speak to Pontius Pilate in Latin? Or to the Roman soldiers?

And how is it that archaelogists have now found evidence that some of the early Masses were indeed (at least partially) in Latin?

But whether true or not, Latin eventually caught on and became popular enough to help flourish the Mass in Africa and other places. Whether it was mandated or not probably didn’t have much to do with it. Language is usually developed over a long period so it probably isn’t an overnight thing where one Pope simply says “Forget what you have learned. Speak only in Latin from now on” and make it stick universally.
 
Having a dead language helps because the words do not change.

For example, “gay” used to mean happy. Now it means homosexual. Thus one wonders what the real meaning of “gay” is, since it can be interpreted in these two totally different ways.

In Latin there is no such problem of words changing their meaning. Thus the Latin Mass has a very concrete meaning whereas a vernacular Mass may contain words that could change, creating potential confusion.
 
Isa_Almisry said:
When St. Peter was in Rome the Christian Romans were speaking Greek, which they would do exclusively until Pope Victor, who introduced Latin. Pope Damasus would promulgate the Latin mass centuries after St. Peter. We have no proof St. Peter spoke Latin. We know he spoke Aramaic and Greek.
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snickers Oh, how I love Orthodox revisionism! The only Romans that even read Greek were wealthy patricians, as Greek was the language of the philosophers in an around the Aegean peninsula. The common Roman, to which no doubt St. Peter would’ve had greater access, spoke the more culturally diffuse and dynamic Vulgar Latin. This is reflected in the less rigid style of ecclesiastical Latin when viewed in relation to the more artificial Classical.
 
<<or a Byzantine Catholic Church, you would find… Greek take the precedent, respectivly.>>

The classical language of most Byzantine Catholic Churches is Slavonic, not Greek.

OTOH, the Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac Catholicn and Orthodox Churches use Aramaic.
 
Isa_Almisry said:
When St. Peter was in Rome the Christian Romans were speaking Greek, which they would do exclusively until Pope Victor, who introduced Latin. Pope Damasus would promulgate the Latin mass centuries after St. Peter. We have no proof St. Peter spoke Latin. We know he spoke Aramaic and Greek.
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well…it would be more accurate to say that St. Mark translated Peter’s works into Greek. Peter probably knew enough Greek to get by (anybody doing business during that era used Greek) but he did not write it, and that’s why Mark translated for him.

Deacon Ed
 
bpbasilphx said:
<<or a Byzantine Catholic Church, you would find… Greek take the precedent, respectivly.>>

The classical language of most Byzantine Catholic Churches is Slavonic, not Greek.

OTOH, the Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac Catholicn and Orthodox Churches use Aramaic.
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Um, there are 14 Byzantine Churches and Slavonic was used in the Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Russian Churches. The Melkites used Arabic while the other churches used their own vernacular (Croatian, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Albanian and Romanian). Greek was the common language of all Byzantine Churches and still retains a presence regardless of the “base” language.

With the exception of Old Church Slavonic, there is no “sacred language” in the Byzantine tradition. Slavonic has occupied that status mostly because of a sentimental attachment to it, not because of any firm tradition within the Byzantine Rite.

Deacon Ed
 
Isa_Almisry said:
When St. Peter was in Rome the Christian Romans were speaking Greek, which they would do exclusively until Pope Victor, who introduced Latin. Pope Damasus would promulgate the Latin mass centuries after St. Peter.
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I think you might mean that the Liturgy was in Greek, with the possible exception of diaspora Jews, the daily language of the people would have been Latin
We have no proof St. Peter spoke Latin. We know he spoke Aramaic and Greek.
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Actually, we most certainly do have proof

Acts 2:4-11
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
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Isa_Almisry said:
When St. Peter was in Rome the Christian Romans were speaking Greek, which they would do exclusively until Pope Victor, who introduced Latin. Pope Damasus would promulgate the Latin mass centuries after St. Peter. We have no proof St. Peter spoke Latin. We know he spoke Aramaic and Greek.
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He and Paul spoke Aramaic and Greek.
 
JuanCarlos said:
Its the language of the Roman Church. If you were a member of an Armenian Rite Church, or a Byzantine Catholic Church, you would find Armenian or Greek take the precedent, respectivly.

Most religions have a language reserved for worship- Muslims have Arabic, Hindus have Sanskrit, Jews have Hebrew, etc.
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that didnt answer the question.
 
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