[b-greek] Re: Hebrew or Greek? 2

From: Jeffrey B. Gibson (jgibson000@home.com)
Date: Fri Apr 20 2001 - 19:44:05 EDT


Roe wrote:

> Glen L Naftaniel schrieb:
>
> [snip]
>
> > Here is the letter:
> >
> > Many people say the NT was WRITTEN in Greek. [snip]
> > Linguists who have studied it out have almost unanimously
> > concluded that most of it was not originally in Greek. The
> > four "gospels" were originally written in Hebrew. This is
> > evidenced by the low linguistic quality of the Greek
> > manuscripts... [snip] It is also evidenced by the use of
> > Hebrew parables, figures of speech, idiomatic expressions...
>
> Hi Glen,
>
> While this is not a topic relevant to B-Greek... it is interesting
> nonetheless.
>
> The NT was written by people whose mother tongue was Hebrew. I, having a
> mother tongue of English, have lived and "functioned" in Germany for 10
> years now. When I write in German, you will find English figures of
> speech and English idiomatic expressions.
>

I think you will find that this is something not accepted by most NT scholars. The
consensus is that Aramaic and not Hebrew was the mother tongue of Palestinians. And
there is great speculation, given the degree of Hellenization in Palestine and the
surrounding cities, with respect to whether or not Greek was a primary language in
this area by Jesus' day and/or in the Galilee.

You might wish to have a look at the essay by J.A. Fitzmyer "The Languages of
Palestine in the First Century A.D." in his _A Wandering Aramean: Collected Aramaic
Essays".

Yours,

Jeffrey Gibson
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon.)
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000@home.com



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