Jesus Primarily Spoke Aramaic

Jesus is believed to have primarily spoken a Galilean accented dialect of Aramaic since Aramaic was the most commonly spoken language of Judea in the first century AD. He also seems to have understood some Greek since he talked with Romans who would have primarily spoken that language.  Also, it was a point of pride and honor for a Jewish man to stand up in the synagogue and read from the Hebrew scriptures,

Biblical Hebrew,and most modern representations of the language, has an abjad writing system rather than an alphabet as in English. Abjabs are writing systems in which there are only consonants with no written vowels. The word is a technical term named for the fist four letters of the Arabic abjad in their original order of sequence: alif, ba, jem, dal. The first four letters in the Hebrew abjad retain the original Semitic sequence: aleph, bet, gimel, dalet.

The first widely used abjad was ancient Phoenician. It was much easier to learn and to write than the Egyptian hieroglyphics (a pictographic writing system). The Phoenician sea merchants quickly adopted the writing system for their business records.

The modern "alphabets" of Greek, English, Spanish, Russian, and other similar languages represent both consonantal and vowel sounds using their glyphs (aka letters). Each glyph represents a different sound.

The English word "alphabet"is derived from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta.

Cat chases it's tail.

Cat chases it’s tail.

Jesus laughs as Zebedee

yells and shakes his hands


Boanerges is an Aramaic word meaning "sons of thunder."  Jesus gave this nickname to his disciples James and John. The term is never explained further and has engendered many attempts at interpretation.

The Bible says that Jesus knew the hearts of men (John 2: 24-25) and some commentators believe that Jesus gave the nickname to the men in reference to the two brother's loud and hot-headed nature as shown in Luke 9:54.  This may well be the correct interpretation, but there are others.

Dr. James Blevins, my Greek professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, believed that the meaning of the phrase laid in "thunder" rather than "sons." The nickname was humorous. He envisioned Zebedee as red-faced and spitting and bubbling as his sons tossed away their fishing nets and followed Jesus.

Jesus Spoke Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek

The New Testament is written in Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire at the time.  It was the Greek language which helped spread the gospel across the then known world. Some, myself included, believe that God arranged events so that at the arrival of Jesus there was one essentially global empire with one universally understood language. Communications across the Empire were much faster across great distances than we today would imagine.

The languages of the subjugated peoples were still in use and the Jews spoke Aramaic among themselves. The sacred language in use in their synagogues was Hebrew and they considered it to be a great honor to speak and read before the congregation.  Jesus would have been conversant in both languages and he also read before the congregation. The Samaritan Woman at the Well would have been speaking Hebrew. (Luke 2: 39-52; John 4:4-26: Luke 4:16-21)  Some of Jesus' sayings  in the New Testament are presented in untranslated Aramaic. ("Talitha cumi" and "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!")

Many Jews probably spoke only Aramaic and Hebrew, but to function in the Roman environment it was very helpful to also speak and understand Greek. Jesus was able to talk to Pilate (John 18: 28-38) and the Roman soldiers  (Matthew 8: 5-13 ), answering them in Greek It is unlikely that Pilate or the centurions understood a single word of Aramaic.

275,000 page views

Update: As of 8 May 2026, the number of page views is 946,372.

This blog just went over 275,000 page views.  Thank you for your interest in this ministry. I hope that the blog helps Christians to understand our spiritual unity within our almost infinite diversity. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28 NASB

I have previously been using the King James Version (KJV) Bible for quotations since the work is in the public domain. The problem with the KJV is that the archaic English, while beautiful and poetic, may not translate well for readers in languages other than English. The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is considered to be the most literal modern translation into English from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic languages.

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation 
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (b. 1813, Italy – d. 1901, aka: Joesph Fortuninus Franciscus Verdi, Joseph Fortunin Francois Verdi) Italian composer, mainly of operas.  Roman Catholic.

Hrant Dink: (b. 1964, Turkey – d. 2007) Editor, journalist, columnist, civil rights activist.  Armenian Apostolic Chrurch, Evangelical Protestant.

Ernest David Kelly: Baptist minister, father of actor DeForest Kelly (1920-1999).

Geza Vermes (b. 1924, Hungary) British theologian, historian, expert in Hebrew, Aramaic, and the life of Jesus.  He and his family were Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism.

James Tetsuzo Takeda (b. 1901, Japan; aka: Tetsu) Episcopal priest, chaplain at St. Paul’s University.  He writes Japanese haiku. 

Written Georgian Was Created So That The Bible Could Be Read

Georgian is an ancient language spoken today by about 6 to 7 million people, with about 4 million of these in the country of Georgia.

There was no written form until 326 AD/CE, when the conversion of the Georgian aristocracy to Christianity led to a desire for a Georgian translation of the Bible. The written form of Georgian is similar in construction and function to Aramaic, the literary language of pagan Georgia.

The oldest surviving literary work in Georgian is the "Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik" (Georgian: წამებაჲ წმიდისა შუშანიკისი დედოფლისაჲ, Tsamebay tsmidisa Shushanikisi dedoplisay) by Iakob Tsurtaveli, from the 5th century AD.

Definition: Sanhedrin

In yesterday’s post on the Rich Young Ruler I said the it was possible that he was a member of the Sanhedrin.  The word is often translated as “council,” and when presented as “Sanhedrin” is a direct transliteration of the Aramaic word and the Greek word synedrion.  The word seems to have begun in Greek and then passed into Aramiac and, in Greek, means “together” and “seat,” so, “to sit together.” The Greek speaking Jews called it the gerousia, “the Assembly of the Ancients.”

The Sanhedrin was a council of judges who ruled in matters of a strictly Jewish nature.  The Romans held all real political power.

Jewish tradition says that the Sanhedrin began with Moses and his council of seventy elder (Numbers 11:16) but the first undisputed mention of the gerousia is in The Antiquities of the Jews, (XII, iii, 3) by Josephus, in his discussion of the reign of Antiochus the Great (223-187 B.C.).

What Does It mean?: "Raca"

In Matthew 5:21-22, the word "raca" remains untranslated in most versions.  It is an ancient Aramaic term of contempt which means "worthless," or "empty," and comes from a word,  רק
("raq") , meaning "to spit." Raca probably meant that the one to whom it was directed was "a piece of spit."


Jesus is pointing out that we are concerned about "big" sins, like murder or theft, but ignore our own multitude of "little" sins.  Here's a news flash: sin is sin, any sin is a missing of the mark, Αμαρτία.  Any sin renders us unworthy to approach the Holy God.  Our only hope is to be covered by the blood of the Lamb.  When God looks on his people, He sees the blood, He sees His Son.