The scholarly consensus holds that Jesus often spoke and taught in Aramaic, while likely knowing Hebrew and at least some Greek. Aramaic was a common language of Roman Judaea, and was thus also spoken by at least some of Jesus' disciples. The villages of Nazareth and Capernaum in Galilee, where the Gospels record him as having been raised, were populated by Aramaic-speaking communities. Jesus probably spoke the Galilean dialect, distinguishable from that which was spoken in Roman-era Jerusalem.
However, Greek was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire including in Judea. Galilee, where Jesus was raised and conducted his ministry, was known for its trade routes and for its interface with the wider spectrum of Hellenism and even Matthew 4:15 references the region as "Galilee of the Gentiles". As such, the Gospels understand Jesus' youth in Nazareth to be in a highly cosmopolitan area in which Greek was used frequently, from the meeting of several major trade routes in Sepphoris. The New Testament was written in Greek, as seen in the earliest documents; there is also epigraphical and literary evidence of Greek in Galilee. The New Testament writers often quoted the Greek Old Testament directly. It is thus likely that Jesus and even some of his own disciples were able to work in Koine Greek and spoke it as well. His occupation required interaction with Greek speaking clients, some of his speeches such as the Sermon on the Mount, suggest he may have even taught in Greek and he certainly was capable of conversing with people from outside of Judea such as with the Syrophoenician woman, the Samaritan woman, and Pontius Pilate.
Additionally, given that Hebrew had continued to be used by Judeans who were left behind during the Babylonian captivity and is understood to be the language of composition for several canonical texts composed in the Second Temple period, Jesus was conversant in the Hebrew spoken among the Samaritans, according to John 4. Jesus was thus well versed in Biblical Hebrew, beyond its use as the liturgical language of Second Temple Judaism.
Cultural and linguistic background
Aramaic was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean during and after the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and 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 and would remain so until the Islamic conquests in the seventh century.Frederick E. Greenspahn. An Introduction to Aramaic – Second Edition, 2003. .[Aramaic Language: The Language of Christ] . Mountlebanon.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.
Dead Sea Scrolls According to Dead Sea Scrolls archaeologist Yigael Yadin, Aramaic was the language of Hebrews until Simon Bar Kokhba's revolt (132 AD to 135 AD). Yadin noticed the shift from Aramaic to 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".
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." Yadin points out that Aramaic was the regional lingua franca at the time.Book "Bar Kokhba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome" p. 234
Josephus Hebrew historian Josephus comments on learning Greek in first century Judea:The Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.
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.Josephus: Jewish War, Book 1 (a) – translation . Attalus.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.
Josephus chose to inform people from what are now Iran, Iraq, and remote parts of the Arabian Peninsula about the 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:
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.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
In , 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".Book "What do Jewish People think about Jesus?" by Dr. Michael Brown, Page 39
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."Josephus' Antiquities Book 5. Chapter 2. Paragraph 2
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.'"Wars Book 5, Chapter 4, Paragraph 2
On several occasions in the New Testament, Aramaic words are called Hebrew. For example, in (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.Book "Introduction to Syriac" by Wheeler Thackston, Page 44
Aramaic phrases in the Greek New Testament
The Greek New Testament transliterates a few Semitic words.For a complete list of all transliterated words in the Synoptic Gospels, see Joshua N. Tilton and David N. Bivin, "Greek Transliterations of Hebrew, Aramaic and Hebrew/Aramaic Words in the Synoptic Gospels" at jerusalemperspective.com When the text refers to the language of such Semitic glosses, it uses words meaning "Hebrew"/"Jewish" (Acts 21:40; 22:2; 26:14: , ) but this term is often applied to unmistakably Aramaic words and phrases;Fitzmyer, Joseph A. A Wandering Armenian: Collected Aramaic Essays. P.43: "The adverb Ἑβραïστί (and its related expressions) seems to mean 'in Hebrew', and it has often been argued that it means this and nothing more. As is well known, it is used at times with words and expressions that are clearly Aramaic. Thus in John 19:13, Ἑβραιστὶ δὲ Γαββαθᾶ is given as an explanation of the Lithostrotos, and Γαββαθᾶ is a Grecized form of the Aramaic word gabbětā, 'raised place.'"The Cambridge History of Judaism: The late Roman-Rabbinic period. 2006. P.460: "Thus in certain sources Aramaic words are termed "Hebrew,"[...] For example: η επιλεγομενη εβραιστι βηθεσδα "which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda" (John 5.2). This is not a Hebrew name but rather an Aramaic one: בית חסדא, "the house of Hisda". for this reason, it is often interpreted as meaning "the (Aramaic) vernacular of the Jews" in recent translations.E.g. Geoffrey W.Bromley (ed.)The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, W.B.Eeerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1979, 4 vols. vol.1 sub.'Aramaic' p.233: 'in the Aramaic vernacular of Palestine'
A small minority of scholars believe that most or all of the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic.Matthew Black. An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts. Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, 1998. .Glenn David Bauscher. 2007. The Original Aramaic New Testament in Plain English. . This theory is known as Aramaic primacy.
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In the Gospel of Mark, 5:41:
This verse gives an Aramaic phrase, attributed to Jesus bringing the girl back to life, with a transliteration into Greek, as . A few Greek manuscripts (Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) of Mark's Gospel have this form of the text, but others (Codex Alexandrinus, the text-type known as the Majority Text, and also the Latin Vulgate) write (koumi, cumi) instead. The latter is in the Textus Receptus and is the version which appears in the KJV.
The Aramaic is ṭlīthā qūm. The word ṭlīthā is the feminine form of the word ṭlē, meaning "young". Qūm is the Aramaic verb 'to rise, stand, get up'. In the feminine singular imperative, it was originally qūmī. However, there is evidence that in speech, the final -ī was dropped so the imperative did not distinguish between masculine and feminine genders. The older manuscripts, therefore, used a Greek spelling that reflected pronunciation, whereas the addition of an 'ι' was perhaps due to a bookish copyist.
In square script Aramaic, it could be טליתא קומי or טליתא קום.
Ephphatha (Ἐφφαθά)
Mark And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," which is 'be opened'.
Once again, the Aramaic word is given with the transliteration, only this time, the word to be transliterated is more complicated. In Greek, the Aramaic is written ἐφφαθά. This could be from the Aramaic ethpthaḥ, the passive imperative of the verb pthaḥ, 'to open', since the th could assimilate in western Aramaic. The pharyngeal ḥ was often omitted in Greek transcriptions in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) and was also softened in Galilean speech.Kutscher, E.Y.. (1976). Studies in Galilean Aramaic.
In Aramaic, it could be אתפתח or אפתח. This word was adopted as the official motto of Gallaudet University, the United States' most prominent school for the deaf.
Abba (Ἀββά[ς])
Mark 14:36 "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
Galatians 4:6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
Romans 8:15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
Abba, an originally Aramaic form borrowed into the Greek Old Testament as a name (2Chr 29:1) [standing for the Hebrew Abijah ()], common in Mishnaic Hebrew and still used in Modern HebrewGreenspahn, Frederick E. 2003. An introduction to Aramaic. P.25 (written Αββά[ς] in Greek, and ’abbā in Aramaic), is immediately followed by the Greek equivalent (Πατήρ) with no explicit mention of it being a translation. In Aramaic, it would be אבא.
Note, the name Barabbas is a Hellenization of the Aramaic Bar Abba (בר אבא), literally "Son of the Father".