What was the primary language of Jesus and his disciples?

It is generally agreed Jesus and his disciples primarily spoke Aramaic, the common language of Judea in the first century AD. The towns of Nazareth and Capernaum in Galilee, where Jesus spent most of his time, were Aramaic-speaking communities. It is still possible that Jesus and some of his apostles knew and used Greek (at least on certain occasions),

Aramaic belongs to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, which also includes the Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. The Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic alphabets.

It became the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Achaemenid Empire, the Parthian Empire, and the Sasanian Empire, of the states of Assur, Adiabene, Osroene, Beth Nuhadra, Beth Garmai and Hatra; the state of Palmyra, and the day-to-day language of Yehud Medinata and of Roman Judaea.

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This is the most powerful performance of the timeless gospel classic

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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63 Comments

Kath Thomson

MohamedLarbi Bouabdallah, Hebrew was the language of scholars and scripture. Jesus would have been able to read Hebrew scripture but the everyday language of the time was Aramaic which is still spoken in some places today.

earlepg

Daniel Hutton, What prompt? What did I miss? I used the double chance and started with Hebrew first.

Elsy O. Stromberg

Humberto Carrasco, WONDERFUL

Coral Harvey

Ruth Cost, not to digress but when I look at some of the so called scores of other competitors and I see scores of nearly a hundred percent I just know there is an awful lot of googling going on. It's a game people . I treat this quiz as a refreshing way to challenge myself and to increase my knowledge in areas unfamiliar to me. What is the fun of cheating ?

Coral Harvey

As the new testament is written in Aramaic it is always said that was Jesus's language. But as the scriptures were written after the death of Jesus of Nazareth I tend to believe he and his disciples spoke Hebrew , as a Jew that would be much more likely .

Cohelian

Generally agreed? A majority guess among scholars, then?

Humberto Carrasco

GOT IT RIGHT

Rob Farr

A good question ... thanks.

blharris

Praise Jesus

mrsalgoud

Jim Idle, The son of Mary did exist, even if he was not called Jesus at that time. He was called BenJoseph up to the age of 12, and after he left Bethlehem to travel to Asia and the east, he was referred to as Immanuel. The word Jesus Christ did not exist during his sojourn until the crucifixion event. That is, if he was crucified and died on the cross as dictated by the bible. When a spear was thrusted into his side while hanging from the cross, blood and water gushed out, something not possible with a dead body. The Romans did not break his leg as they do with all crucified persons, and these persons on the cross usually take about three days to die anyway. Joseph of Arimathea took him down only after a few hours and moved him elsewhere. A Greek philosophy and belief of the word "Christos" was applied to him a few hundred years after, and thus the terminology "Jesus Christ".

Frank Duncan MacDonald Sr

Hey Tim - I agree, but what's your point? The bible was scribed at least 200 years after the death of Jesus. The question referenced the language spoken by Jesus.

Margaret Hinton

Got it right

David Cloud

Tim Martin, True. But that was not the language that the people spoke among themselves. Greek was the language of scholars. The language the people spoke was Aramaic.