Board index ‹ Bible

[Odd Thinker]

If the events depicted in the Bible happened in the Middle East, why are all of the original biblical origin texts in Greek?

[jimwalton]

The Bible was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Old Testament is written primarily in Hebrew (though there are a few Aramaic sections in Daniel), and the NT was written exclusively in Greek. Greek was the common language of commerce in the first century. Latin (because of the Roman Empire) was the language of law. And for the Jews of Palestine, most of them would have spoken Aramaic.

The ancient writings of the Old Testament (OT) were written in Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people. It was a Semitic language that evolved from Phoenician and Canaanite language roots— the Middle East, as per your question.

The Hebrew Bible (our OT) was translated into Greek (what is called the Septuagint, or LXX) in about 300-250 BC because Greek was the common language of the region at the time. (Because of the exile of the Israelites, some knowledge of Hebrew was fading away in the centuries before Christ, and the people spoke mainly the language of their occupying force, primarily Greek at the time.) The knowledge of Hebrew was never lost, however. The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Scriptures, from about 200-150 BC, are written in Hebrew.

By the time of the 1st century AD, Greek was the most commonly spoken language of the Empire. The NT authors, wanting the largest audience for their works, wrote in Greek. Sometimes they were writing to Gentile audiences who would not have spoken Aramaic or Hebrew, and the biblical authors probably didn't know Latin well enough to write in it.