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(Part 1 of 2)

The Bible is an eastern book and was written by eastern people. “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Peter 1:21). These “holy men” spoke three main languages, which are Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. If we want to understand the Bible, we need to know how to study these languages. This article is a brief introduction to the history of the three languages and how they interact in Biblical study.

The oldest language is probably Aramaic. It was not called that then, but many Aramaic speaking people today say that Aramaic as a language goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. They call it “the Mesopotamian language.” The first mention of Aram, the youngest son of Shem, is in Genesis 10:22. The language that Aram spoke was transmitted down to Abraham.

Abraham left his home in Mesopotamia and traveled with his brother Nahor to Haran in Syria. The son of Nahor was also called Aram (Genesis 22:21). This land area in Syria became known as the land of the Aramaens, or Aram. Later, Abraham left Haran and crossed the Euphrates River and traveled to Canaan. His descendants were called Hebrews, a term derived from the Aramaic word abar, meaning “to cross over.” Gradually, a unique dialect and script was developed called Hebrew. The Old Testament scriptures were written and compiled in this language. Throughout the centuries from Moses’ time on, Hebrew was used as the Biblical language and was preserved very carefully by the scribes.

By the time of the New Testament in the first century, Aramaic was the commercial and business language throughout the Near East and Greek and Latin were also spoken by the people in the Roman Empire. Hebrew continued to be the language preserved in the Old Testament scriptures. The Gospels were most certainly written in Aramaic and most likely Paul’s epistles were also. But as the gospel reached out in the first century from Jerusalem into Antioch of Syria and then on into Achaia and Macedonia, which were Greek-speaking areas, the scriptures were almost immediately translated into Greek. This is also why there are additions of Greek loan words in the Aramaic (words of Greek origin spelled in Aramaic letters) and also Aramaic loan words in the early Koine (Biblical) Greek.

In the fourth century, there was a split between the eastern and western churches. Basically, the eastern churches continued to use the Aramaic version of the New Testament called the Peshitta (which means “simple” or “straight”) and the western churches used the Greek versions. We are still told today that the Greek versions are the “best and most accurate” because we have grown up as part of the western tradition. But the truth is that the two languages of scriptures grew up together and each has valuable things to contribute to Biblical study.

-- Jan Magiera

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