Clivedurdle

Something I followed by googling on a comment here but cannot track now!

From the texts we have, what language was Jesus speaking? Would it not be obvious if something has been translated from say aramaic or is originally Greek?

Huon

There is another intermediate view. The Greek spoken and written in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt could contain local expressions which would be translated from original Aramaïc.

And we have no authentic records of Jesus, but the transmission of his sayings and actions (if ...) by people who were writing directly in the local Greek, or translating into Greek their own Aramaïc thoughts.

bacht

Well, in the introduction to Josephus' Wars he claims he wrote in Aramaic, which he calls "the language of our country", and later translated the book into Greek.

Roger Pearse

Of course not. He spoke English, dammit.

show_no_mercy

If English was good enough for Jesus, then it's good enough for us!

adren@line

He also looked European.

DCHindley

But with a distinct accent ... no doubt.

DCH

DCHindley

Actually, IIUC, he wrote an account of the "Capture of Jerusalem" in Aramaic, which is more or less book 5 of the Jewish War. It was not so long before, in Herod's early days, that Parthia did intervene in Jewish politics, and the Romans did not want them to try it again. This "Capture" described how the powerful Roman armies crushed all Jewish resistance, and how the squabbling Jewish rebels only made things worse by inflicting all sorts of pain and anguish on their own people. It was intended for distribution among Jews living in Parthian controlled Babylon and Mesopotamia, to dissuade them from supporting any other attempt at revolt by Jews in the Roman sphere of influence.

The rest of the books of the Jewish War were all composed in Greek, as a kind of expanded version of the "Capture." They were meant to give the reader a little historical background, showing the many ways that the Jewish homeland had been ruled over history, both by Jews and by foreigners. Josephus wrote this in Greek, but had Greek scribes polish his style, and fairly successfully I understand, so it seemed more Attic-like for the discerning Greek reader. The Greek of the Antiquities, although written 15+ years later, was a bit rougher, and probably represented Josephus' actual abilities, so those scribes who helped write the War, and supplied by the emperor, were apparently damn good ones. I do not believe he had those kind of resources when he wrote the Antiquities.

DCH

Roger Pearse

No of course not. Only colonials, foreigners and oiks have accents.

rizdek

He spoke Armenian with an English accent...haven't you seen the Mr Diety documentaries?