Sunday, 12 June 2022

Original Bible Language - Greek (CW109)

 World War 3 is at Hand

The Hebrew Language
  Daniel was a youth when he was taken into slavery after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. He had to learn Aramaic, the language of his new masters. After the fall of the Babylonian Empire in 539 BC to the Persians, Aramaic continued to be commonly used in the Persian Empire.
  Daniel initially wrote the book of Daniel in Hebrew. In his later years, he used Aramaic to continue his book possibly because most of the younger generation of Jews were not able to comprehend Hebrew.
  Within half a century or so, many Jews had replaced their mother tongue with Aramaic.
Note many parts of the writings of Ezra were also in Aramaic.
   Except for the religious Jews, who memorised the Torah written in Hebrew when young, the rest of the Jews were not able to understand Hebrew.

Translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek
    After the Greek in 330 BC conquered the Persian Empire, the Jews once again had to learn and speak Greek, the language of their new masters.
  In the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates, "the laws of the Jews" at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE) were translated into the Greek Septuagint (meaning seventy) by seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
   For the sake of the Jews who could not understand Hebrew, the complete 20 canonical books of the Hebrew Bible were finally translated into 39 books of the Greek Old Testament called 'The Septuagint'.
   The Hebrew Bible was mainly reserved for Jewish religious rites.

De facto Language in 1st century A.D
   The New Testament was written in Koine Greek - the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean then.
   This suggests that our Lord Jesus and Jews all spoke Koine Greek which was the de facto language. Our Lord Jesus must have memorised the Torah from childhood for at the age of twelve He was able to discuss scriptures intelligently with the religious teachers.
Luke 2:46-47  Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.

Hebrew Spoken on the Cross
Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
   When our Lord Jesus cried out in Hebrew at His death, the Jews, who no longer speak Hebrew, mistook Him calling the prophet Elijah to help Him.
Mat 27:47, 49  Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!"... The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him."

Canonical Books of the NT
   The Council of Rome in 382 A.D canonised the present 27 New Testament books (written in Greek) from amongst 50 false Gospels, hundreds of heretic and demonic records, and also epistles with erred and missing texts. All these rejects were supposed to be burnt, destroyed and banned (e.g Dead Sea Scrolls).

Protestant Bible
   Martin Luther ensured that the Protestant Bible comprises only canonical books and their initial translations. This original basic Bible consists of the 39 books of Greek Old Testament called The Septuagint (translated from the Hebrew Bible) and the 27 canonical books of the Greek New Testament.
   Translations taken directly from this original basic Bible are the most accurate (e.g King James Bible).

Translation into Latin Vulgare
   Jerome translated the basic Bible into the Latin Vulgate between A.D 383 and 404.

Deuterocanonical Books
  The Deuterocanonical books, written in Koine Greek in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, are not canonical books. They are mainly of historic nature and do not affect the teachings of the Law.
   Both the Roman Catholic Bible and the Greek Orthodox Bible have added several of these Deuterocanonical books to the original basic Bible (Protestant Bible).