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NFLgal
Guest
Can someone please tell me how/why Latin became the offical language of the Church? I thought Jesus spoke Hebrew and Greek. Thanks.
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legendashmore
Guest
It became the offical language because for a long period of time, it was the vernacular of the Church. Most people in the church spoke Latin, or understood enough of it to get through a normal conversation. St. Peter, who was the First Pope, lived in Rome, and Latin is the language that they spoke during that time.
They made it official because more people spoke it than didn’t and it was the language where the head of the church was situated.
They made it official because more people spoke it than didn’t and it was the language where the head of the church was situated.
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1ke
Guest
Perhaps you have heard of the Roman Empire?
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Scoobyshme
Guest
For many centuries in Europe, if anyone did commerce or wrote literature, it was always in Latin. That was the common language between countries and amongst the educated. Previous to that, it was Greek. These days, believe it or not, it’s English. If you are an international pilot from any country, and plan to fly out of your own country, you will be required to know enough English to communicate with the control tower, etc.
There is a benefit in our day to using Latin aside from all that. Latin is a “dead” language, meaning, it will not change like “living” languages. For example, when I was a young boy and someone told me I was “bad” then I had to wonder what I had done wrong. Today, it can mean quite the opposite. “You bad! Unh hunh, unh hunh!” meaning you’re “cool” in some way, or acceptable. Our language changes. Latin does not.
There is a benefit in our day to using Latin aside from all that. Latin is a “dead” language, meaning, it will not change like “living” languages. For example, when I was a young boy and someone told me I was “bad” then I had to wonder what I had done wrong. Today, it can mean quite the opposite. “You bad! Unh hunh, unh hunh!” meaning you’re “cool” in some way, or acceptable. Our language changes. Latin does not.
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Barbkw
Guest
I’m not sure, but it must have been the “universal” language of the Mediterranean region.
Roman also built the first 'interstate" highway, the Appian Way, connect much of the region.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appian_Way
Roman also built the first 'interstate" highway, the Appian Way, connect much of the region.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appian_Way
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Brendan
Guest
That is quite correct. Even a century after the Reformation, Sir Issac Newton published his works on physics and mathematics in Latin.
And the reason was the same. If you wanted people in other countries to understand you and read your works, you wrote in Latin.
It is very similar to why Air Traffic control is done in English. So a Russian pilot landing at a French airport can follow the instructions given from the tower
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ConstantineTG
Guest
In the Apostolic age and shortly after, Churches were established. And the particular Church would adapt traditions, practices and languages of the area where its established. That is why today we have 23 sui juris Churches in the Catholic Church, each having unique traditions and most would have their own official Liturgical languages.
The Roman Church obviously was established in Rome where Latin is the official language.
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ConstantineTG
Guest
No it is not. Greek is more commonly used in the East, although each sui juris Church would have their own language. There are duplications, its not 22 different languages. I don’t have the number off the top of my head right now
I figured this was the case. I did not know if there was a need for a single language used for documents shared between Churches.
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ConstantineTG
Guest
I’m not that knowledgable in Church history but I would assume that early Church documents would be in Greek as it is the universal language back then. Documents within each sui juris Church would be in their own language and documents coming in from different languages would be translated, as it is today where documents may be written in different languages, translated to Latin, then translated from Latin into other languages.
Thats just my guess.
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Matthew_Holford
Guest
I don’t know if Jesus spoke Greek. I would think he could speak Hebrew as religious texts would have been in Hebrew. I thought his everyday language was Aramaic.
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Matthew_Holford
Guest
Yes, it is! Latin is the official language of the Latin Catholic Church, which is what SMHW said.
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ConstantineTG
Guest
We weren’t talking about the Latin Church but the Roman Empire. Greek is more prevalant in the East Empire while Latin is in the West. Although at the time the Churches were established, Greek is more universal than Latin.
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ConstantineTG
Guest
One of the leading arguments that Jesus did speak Greek is his reference parts of Daniel which is only found in the Septuagint
"ConstantineTG:
That’s the whole point. Eastern Catholic Churches aren’t Latin Catholics. The OP may have meant to imply a specific reference to the Latin Church but the thread title and post did not actually say so.
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ConstantineTG
Guest
The context of my conversation has been lost. Let me clarify what I said.
One comment was that the Church uses Latin because of the Roman Emprie. That is why I said that in the Eastern Roman Empire, its mostly Greek. So you cannot say that its just the Roman Empire because even the Eastern Churches were in the Roman Empire in the beginning. Constantinople is part of the Roman Empire but they are not Latin.
The most accurate answer would be that the Roman Church is in the city of Rome (obviously) where Latin is spoken. That is why they adopted the vernacular.
One comment was that the Church uses Latin because of the Roman Emprie. That is why I said that in the Eastern Roman Empire, its mostly Greek. So you cannot say that its just the Roman Empire because even the Eastern Churches were in the Roman Empire in the beginning. Constantinople is part of the Roman Empire but they are not Latin.
The most accurate answer would be that the Roman Church is in the city of Rome (obviously) where Latin is spoken. That is why they adopted the vernacular.
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joeantony
Guest
Hi SMHW,
Indeed you are right. Except Roman Church no Catholic church has the notion of an official langauge. This misunderstanding is the root cause of all the problem with the people who fervently want to go all the way back and bring latin in all the liturgies. !
Joe
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Matthew_Holford
Guest
I accept what you’re saying about the Eastern Catholic churches not having an ‘official’ language. I don’t know any different. Isn’t it true though that for some of the Eastern Catholic churches, maybe all of them, that their liturgical languages aren’t the vernacular of the place?
I think, and this is just my opinion, that we call Latin the official language of the Latin Catholic Church because 1) all liturgical books are first issued by the Holy See in Latin and 2) most documents issued by the Holy See (apostolic constitutions, apostolic letters, instructions, etc.) are issued in Latin.
When the Eastern Catholic churches issue documents what language do they issue them in? (I don’t know and until this thread this question never occurred to me.)
I’m not sure what you mean by this statement.
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