Evacuate

I am looking for a link or a quick and dirty on the original text of the books in the Bible. What language were the first transcripts written (or discovered) in, OT and NT. The reason I am asking is for curiosity and because many Christians that I discuss the Bible with claim that all of the NT was originally written in Hebrew, the same language from the time and place of Jesus. Is this true? Were all the books in the NT found written in the same language? The OT and the NT had to have been written in different languages, right? These are some of my questions, thanks for the help.

Evacuate

Roger Pearse

The NT books were all written in Greek, and the earliest manuscripts are all in that language. It was early translated into other languages, including Latin and Syriac.

Christians usually know this. I'm unclear who would assert it was written in Hebrew.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Evacuate

I am never surprised at what certain Christians will assert.

Thanks for the info

Evacuate

Zeichman

Perhaps based on the "Hebrew Matthew" thing?

And don't forget Yuri is our local advocate of Aramaic Primacy.

Evacuate

What about the OT, was it written in Greek as well? Dead Sea Scrolls? Thanks.

andrewcriddle

The OT (at least the Protestant OT = Hebrew Bible) was originally written either in Hebrew (the great majority) or Aramaic (portions of Daniel and Ezra one verse in Jeremiah).

Most of the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books in the OT such as Ecclesiasticus, Tobit and 1 Maccabees were originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, although some such as the Wisdom of Solomon were originally written in Greek.

Most of the DSS are written in Hebrew some in Aramaic, there are a few documents written in Greek including (fragmentary) translations of the Pentateuch.

Andrew Criddle

Roger Pearse

A good thought. Our poster should recall that Matthew did compose his gospel in Hebrew; but whatever that was is lost, nor do we know how our Greek gospel relates to it.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Evacuate

Thanks for all of the good information. Anybody know a good website where I could learn more information about the OT and NT original text?

Evacuate

Knife

Do we even have ANY of the original text?

Toto

Off the top of my head - www.earlychristianwritings.com and www.earlyjewishwritings.com would be good places to start.