What language(s) did Jesus speak?

Micheal Palmer (mwpalmer@earthlink.net)
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 17:47:44 -0800 (PST)

I have not been following this thread, so someone may have already
addressed the question that I want to ask. If so, just delete this note and
continue reading something that seems more interesting.

I am reading Graham Stanton's book, _The Gospels and Jesus_ and saw that he
makes the claim (on page 145) that of the ossuaries discovered in the area
of Israel dating between the years 200 BC and AD 100, a full two thirds of
them have their inscriptions in Greek rather than Hebrew or Aramaic. I have
not read Porter's article on the languages used in first-century Palestine,
but I don't need convincing that Jesus could have used Greek. My own
research has convinced me of that some time ago. My question is whether
anyone can verify Stanton's claim. Does Porter deal with this evidence?
Where did Stanton get this figure?

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Micheal W. Palmer
Religion & Philosophy
Meredith College

mwpalmer@earthlink.net
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