show_no_mercy

I was wondering, if Paul really was one of the original disciples, wouldn't he have had to have known Hebrew/Aramic? If he didn't know either language then I'd say he wasn't an eyewitness to Jesus.

What language did Paul write in? Was it Greek?

S.C.Carlson

Paul, by his own admission, was not one of the original disciples. He also knows at least one Aramaic word ("Abba"), but otherwise his writings are in good Greek.

Toto

Paul was not one of the original 12 disciples, according to the NT. He was not an eyewitness to the historical Jesus, and no one claims that he was.

His surviving letters are all in Koine Greek, which is to be expected, since they were aimed at gentiles and diaspora Jews who spoke Greek. But then the entire NT was written in Greek according to most experts.

When Paul quotes the Hebrew Scriptures, he seems to be using the Septuagint version.

I don't know how you would tell if he spoke Aramaic or Hebrew. If he were a Pharisee, he would have; but we don't know about that except from his claim.

But he might well have spoken Ararmaic and Hebrew, although we have no direct evidence.

judge

Clearly yes. His letter not only contain Aramaic words, like Maranatha but they contain actual poetry in Aramaic which does not exist in the greek translations!

His letter to the Romans contains a mistranslation in the greek but the original Aramaic contains the correct reading.
See Here


If you read the book of acts you will see that greek seems to have not been Pauls first language but rtather hebrew/aramaic was.
When the risen jesus appears to paul he speaks to him in hebrew/aramaic as well.

1 Timothy 3:16

Here is a discussion of this particular piece of poetry

Sheshbazzar

Acts 22:8 and 26:14

judge

In Epesians 4:8 paul quotes a reading of psalm 68 that is only in the Aramaic targum and the peshitta.

See Here page 45.

It seems at times he quotes something that agrees with the LXX but I don't think we can necessarily conclude he is quoting it.

judge

Phillipians 4;8 in Aramaic.
Thanks to larry Kelsey for this piece.

Of course there are more examples but western scholars have not examined them becasue they already know Paul wrote in greek so there is no need even to look.

We fond Aramaic verse and poetry all through the NT not just in Pauls letters.
There are some great examples in the gospels.

show_no_mercy

I've run into a lot of Christians who claim that he was. Where's the proof that he wasn't?

judge

Shouldn't they have to prove that he was? There is no reason to think he was even from letters of Paul.

Amaleq13

The Christian Bible, oddly enough.

Paul describes himself as a former persector of Christians before converting subsequent to an experience of the risen Christ.

The Gospels never mention Paul but he is depicted in Acts as a former persecutor who converted after experience the risen Christ.

You need to start hanging around with smarter Christians, amigo.