Editing Language of Jesus (section)

==Cultural and linguistic background==
{{Further|Historical Jesus|Historical background of the New Testament}}

Aramaic was the [[lingua franca|common language]] of the [[Eastern Mediterranean]] during and after the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrian]], [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]], and [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] empires (722–330 BC) and remained a common language of the region in the first century AD. In spite of the increasing importance of Greek, the use of Aramaic was also expanding, and it would eventually be dominant among Jews both in the [[Holy Land]] and elsewhere in the [[Middle East]] around 200 AD<ref name = sb>{{Citation | last1 = Sáenz-Badillos | first1 = Ángel | first2 = John | last2 = Elwolde | year = 1996 | title = A history of the Hebrew language | pages = 170–71 | quote = There is general agreement that two main periods of RH (Rabbinical Hebrew) can be distinguished. The first, which lasted until the close of the [[Tannaitic era]] (around 200 CE), is characterized by RH as a spoken language gradually developing into a literary medium in which the [[Mishnah]], [[Tosefta]], ''[[baraitot]]'' and Tannaitic ''[[midrashim]]'' would be composed. The second stage begins with the ''[[Amoraim]]'', and sees RH being replaced by Aramaic as the spoken [[vernacular]], surviving only as a [[literary language]]. Then it continued to be used in later rabbinic writings until the tenth century in, for example, the Hebrew portions of the two [[Talmuds]] and in midrashic and [[haggadic]] literature}}</ref> and would remain so until the [[Early Muslim conquests|Islamic conquests]] in the seventh century.<ref>Frederick E. Greenspahn. An Introduction to Aramaic – Second Edition, 2003. {{ISBN|1-58983-059-8}}.</ref><ref>[http://www.mountlebanon.org/aramaiclanguage.html Aramaic Language: The Language of Christ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211181340/http://mountlebanon.org/aramaiclanguage.html |date=2009-02-11 }}. Mountlebanon.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.</ref>

===Dead Sea Scrolls===
According to [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] archaeologist [[Yigael Yadin]], Aramaic was the language of [[Hebrews]] until [[Bar Kokhba revolt|Simon Bar Kokhba's revolt]] (132 AD to 135 AD). Yadin noticed the shift from Aramaic to [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] in the documents he studied, which had been written during the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt. In his book, ''Bar Kokhba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome'', Yigael Yadin notes, "It is interesting that the earlier documents are written in Aramaic while the later ones are in Hebrew. Possibly the change was made by a special decree of Bar Kokhba who wanted to restore Hebrew as the official language of the state".<ref name="Yadin 1971 p.181 ">{{cite book | last=Yadin | first=Yigael | title=Bar-Kokhba; the rediscovery of the legendary hero of the second Jewish revolt against Rome | url=https://archive.org/details/barkokhba00yiga | url-access=registration | publisher=Random House | location=New York | year=1971 | isbn=978-0-297-00345-8 | page=[https://archive.org/details/barkokhba00yiga/page/181 181]}}</ref>

In another book by Sigalit Ben-Zion, Yadin said: "it seems that this change came as a result of the order that was given by Bar Kokhba, who wanted to revive the Hebrew language and make it the official language of the state."<ref name="Zion 2009 p.155 ">{{cite book | last=Zion | first=Sigalit | title=A roadmap to the heavens an anthropological study of hegemony among priests, sages, and laymen | publisher=Academic Studies Press | location=Boston | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-934843-14-7 | page=155}}</ref> Yadin points out that Aramaic was the regional [[lingua franca]] at the time.<ref>Book "Bar Kokhba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome" p. 234</ref>

===Josephus===
Hebrew historian [[Josephus]] comments on learning [[Greek language|Greek]] in first century [[Judea]]:<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2848/2848-h/2848-h.htm The Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus]. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.</ref>
{{quote|I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the elements of the Greek language, although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations, and so adorn their discourses with the smoothness of their periods; because they look upon this sort of accomplishment as common, not only to all sorts of free-men, but to as many of the servants as please to learn them. But they give him the testimony of being a wise man who is fully acquainted with our laws, and is able to interpret their meaning; on which account, as there have been many who have done their endeavors with great patience to obtain this learning, there have yet hardly been so many as two or three that have succeeded therein, who were immediately well rewarded for their pains.|Antiquities of Jews XX, XI}}

In the first century AD, the Aramaic language was widespread throughout the Middle East, as is supported by the testimony of Josephus's ''[[The Jewish War]]''.<ref>[http://www.attalus.org/old/bj_1a.html Josephus: Jewish War, Book 1 (a) – translation]. Attalus.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.</ref>

Josephus chose to inform people from what are now Iran, Iraq, and remote parts of the [[Arabian Peninsula]] about the [[Jewish–Roman wars|war of the Jews against the Romans]] through books he wrote "in the language of our country", prior to translating into Greek for the benefit of the Greeks and Romans:

{{quote|I have proposed to myself, for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians; Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work].|Jewish Wars (Book 1, Preface, Paragraph 1)}}

{{quote|I thought it therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs of such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer those Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of these things, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the [[Parthian Empire|Parthians]], and the [[Babylonians]], and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation beyond [[Euphrates]], with the [[Adiabene|Adiabeni]], by my means, knew accurately both whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what manner it ended.|Jewish Wars (Book 1 Preface, Paragraph 2)}}

H. St. J. Thackeray (who translated Josephus' ''Jewish Wars'' from Greek into English) also points out, "We learn from the proem that the Greek text was not the first draft of the work. It had been preceded by a narrative written in Aramaic and addressed to "the barbarians in the interior", who are more precisely defined lower down as the natives of Parthia, Babylonia, and [[Arabia]], the Jewish dispersion in [[Mesopotamia]], and the inhabitants of Adiabene, a principality of which the reigning house, as was proudly remembered, were converts to [[Judaism]] (B. i, 3, 6). Of this Aramaic work the Greek is described as a "version" made for the benefit of the subjects of the Roman Empire, i.e. the Graeco-Roman world at large.<ref>Josephus with an English Translation by H. St. J. Thackeray, M.A., in Nine Volumes, II the Jewish War, Books I-III, Introduction, page ix</ref>

In {{bibleverse|Acts|1:19|KJV}}, the "Field of Blood" was known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem in their own language as ''[[Akeldama]]'', which is the transliteration of the Aramaic words "Haqal Dama".<ref>Book "What do Jewish People think about Jesus?" by Dr. Michael Brown, Page 39</ref>

Josephus differentiated Hebrew from his language and that of first-century Israel. Josephus refers to Hebrew words as belonging to "the Hebrew tongue" but refers to Aramaic words as belonging to "our tongue" or "our language" or "the language of our country".

Josephus refers to a Hebrew word with the phrase "the Hebrew tongue": "But the affairs of the [[Canaanites]] were at this time in a flourishing condition, and they expected the Israelites with a great army at the city Bezek, having put the government into the hands of [[Adonibezek]], which name denotes the Lord of Bezek, for Adoni in the Hebrew tongue signifies Lord."<ref>Josephus' Antiquities Book 5. Chapter 2. Paragraph 2</ref>

In this example, Josephus refers to an Aramaic word as belonging to "our language": "This new-built part of the city was called '[[Bezetha]],' in our language, which, if interpreted in the Grecian language, may be called 'the New City.'"<ref>Wars Book 5, Chapter 4, Paragraph 2</ref>

On several occasions in the New Testament, Aramaic words are called Hebrew. For example, in {{bibleverse|John|19:17|KJV}} (KJV), the gospel-writer narrates that Jesus, "bearing his cross[,] went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew [[Golgotha]]." The last word is, in fact, Aramaic. The word "Golgotha" is a transliteration of an Aramaic word, because ''-tha'' in ''Golgotha'' is the Aramaic definite article on a feminine noun in an emphatic state.<ref>Book "Introduction to Syriac" by Wheeler Thackston, Page 44</ref>