Languages and how they work is a startlingly difficult field of study and one where it’s especially easy to make mistakes – especially when we’re dealing with spoken language. Until the invention of audible recording devices, it was impossible to know exactly how an individual or group spoke. We have no real idea of how, say, George Washington actually sounded speaking. On the other hand, for a pivotal figure such as Margaret Thatcher, we have thousands of hours of speeches and interviews available to listen to. In 500 years, Thatcher will still be an object of study, and students of history will be able to listen to her language and study and analyze it.And the further we go back, the less we know about what someone sounded like. At a certain point in history, people started commenting on voice sounds. Washington was said to have a deep voice, while Lincoln’s was said to be high and tinny, but one that carried well in public – a factor that was important for someone speaking to crowds before amplification.But go back much further, and the sounds of voices becomes more murky. Even descriptions of important individuals are either not noted, or seem to be almost tribute descriptions of an imagined sounds, prettying up what was likely not an attractive voice.
Written language can likewise be deceptive. We imagine that it’s an accurate representation of what we’re saying but it’s often not. We pretty up spoken language when we write it down, making it sound both classier and less interesting than what we really say. So let’s ponder what languages Jesus spoke.In orthodox Christianity, Jesus is at the same time both a full, ordinary human being and at the same time, he is fully God. God, of course, understands all languages – present, past, and future – but at the same time Jesus is said to have – Luke 2:52 – to have “increased in wisdom.” So we’re confronted with the puzzle that Jesus temporarily put aside his ability as God to know everything and – as with other stuff – learned to speak like any other child. Jesus grew up in northern Galilee, in the town of Nazareth. There are glimpses in the gospels that in intimate settings he spoke Aramaic, which is a language related to classical Hebrew but not identical to it. Isaiah 36:11 is telling here. Written about 7 centuries before Christ, Aramaic and Hebrew were already mutually unintelligible. Aramaic tended to be the language of the family setting in Israel in the first century, although there were probably wide differences in speech patterns across Palestine.(There were also some major language divergences starting to occur in northern Israel in Aramaic – divergences that led – later in the first century – to the development of a language we now call Syriac. But that development occurred later in the first century, mostly after the time of Jesus).These differences existed because most people in that time grew up in a small area and seldom left. Jews were a bit different in that because Jewish ceremonial law required attendance at the temple – in Jerusalem – annually, so there would have been a mixing of speech during those pilgrimages. Jesus also knew Hebrew. We know this because he was a teacher (“rabbi”) in Israel and being able to read and interpret Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament scriptures) was assumed for those teachers. He was not formally trained as a rabbi (note John 7:15) but there were means in place in synagogues where teachers would pass along their knowledge to boys growing up in the area. He also knew Greek. Most people assume that since the Romans occupied most of the Mediterranean area, Latin would have been the language most people used. But while Jesus certainly understood and probably spoke Latin (how else could you deal with those pesky Roman officials?) koine (“common”) Greek was used in the way we use English in our time: it was the common language everyone spoke. Everyone. Even in Rome. Jesus uses it, too, and even his final word from the cross before he died was spoken in Greek. He uses Aramaic in intimate settings, such as when he addresses a child, but in public settings, it was Greek.