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Is
the Gospel originally in Greek or Hebrew ?
The Books collected into the New Testament do
not constitute the utterances of Jesus nor of his disciples. Jesus was of Jewish
ancestry and so were his disciples. If any of Jesus' utterances were to be found
preserved in their original form, they could only be in the Hebrew language.
Same is the case with the utterances of his disciples. But no copy of the New
Testament in ancient Hebrew exists in the world. The old copies are all in
Greek.
Christian writers try to cover this Grave Defect by saying that in the times
of Jesus the language in general use was Greek as you do. This is impossible for
more reasons than one.
Nations do not easily give up their language. It is for them as valuable an
inheritance as any property or other possession. In Eastern Europe, there are
people who for three or four hundred years have lived under Russian rule, but
their languages remain intact to this day.
France and Spain have ruled over Morocco and Algeria for a long time. Yet the
language of these former subjected people is still Arabic. Two thousand years
have passed since the time of Jesus. Yet the Jews have not forgotten their
language.
Even today, in parts of Europe and America, Jews speak "Yiddish", a
corrupt form of ancient Hebrew. If this long lapse of time spent amongst other
peoples has not destroyed the Jewish language, then Roman rule in Palestine
which had begun only about 50 years before the advent of Jesus was not long
enough for a people to forget their language. But there are other important
considerations also to be kept in view:
1. Nations which attain to any importance in history do not give up their
language, and the Jews were a very important people indeed.
2. The religion of the Jews was recorded in Hebrew and for this reason
particularly it was impossible for them to give up their language.
3. In the scale of civilization and refinement, the Jews did not regard
themselves as inferior to the Romans, rather they felt Superior and this must
have made them proud of their language and reluctant to give it up.
4. The Jews entertained hopes for the return of their political power;
nations which fear the future become pessimistic and therefore tend to lose
pride in their language. But the Jews in the time of Jesus were awaiting the
advent of their King who was to re-establish Jewish rule. Looking forward to
such a future, they could not have been so negligent in protecting their
language.
5. Jewish authors of that time wrote in their own language or in some corrupt
form of it. If their language had changed, we should have had books of the time
written in a language other than Hebrew.
6. The oldest manuscripts of the New Testament are in Greek. But in the time
of Jesus, the Roman Empire had not become divided into two halves. The center of
the Empire was still Rome. The Roman and Greek languages are very difficult. If
Roman influence had at all penetrated Jewish life, it should have resulted in
the assimilation of Latin (and not Greek) words into the Hebrew language. Yet
the oldest manuscripts of the Gospels are all in Greek. This proves that the
Gospels were written down at a time when the Roman Empire had become divided and
its eastern possession had become part of the Greek Empire, so that the Greek
language had begun to exert its influence on Christianity and its literature.
7. Phrases such as the following which are preserved in the Gospels in their
original form are all Hebrew phrases:
(a) "Hossana" - Matthew 21:9
(b) "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani"
- Matthew 27:46
(c) "Rabbi" - John 3:2
(d) "Talitha cumi" -
Mark 5:41
From the Acts, it appears that even after the crucifixion Jews spoke Hebrew:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at
Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was
noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that
every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and
marveled, saying one to another, Behold are not all these which speak Galilaeans
? And how hear we, every man in our own tongue, where in we were born ?
Parthians and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in
Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia,and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and
in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and in strangers of Rome, Jews and
proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the
wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one
to another, What meaneth this ? Others mocking said, These men are full of new
wine." (Acts 2:3-13)
It is evident that at this time the language spoken in Palestine was Hebrew.
Speaking any other language was extraordinary. Among the names mentioned is
Rome, which means that the Roman language was not spoken in Palestine and
whoever spoke it seemed a stranger.
We are not concerned here with the merits of the narrative but we only wish
to point out that this passage from the Acts proves conclusively that even after
the crucifixion the language of the Jews was Hebrew. Those who knew other
languages were exceptions. When some of the disciples spoke these other
languages - among them Latin. Some people thought they were drunk and talking
nonsense. If the country as a whole used Roman or Greek. no such reaction would
be possible.
It is clear, therefore, that the language which Jesus and his disciples spoke
was Hebrew, not Latin or Greek. So copies of the New Testament written down in
Latin or Greek must have been written down long after the time of Jesus, at a
time when Christianity had begun to penetrate into Roman territory and Roman
imperialist power had become divided into the Italian and Greek Parts. Books of
this kind, composed 100 or 200 years after Jesus by unknown authors and
attributed by them to Jesus and his disciples, can be of little use to any
believer today. It was necessary, therefore, that we should have had another
book sent to us from heaven, free from these defects and one which readers could
regard with certainty as the very Word of God. The Holy Qur'an.
Source : www.jesus-or-allah.org
(ICRA)