Jack Griffiths

What language did Jesus speak? Most people assume Aramaic. It is true that the gospels contain several statements where Jesus speaks Aramaic. Such as when He raises Jairus’s daughter from the dead and tells her, “talitha cumi.” It’s also true that Aramaic had been growing in popularity leading up to the first century when Jesus walked the earth. So it makes sense that He would have spoken Aramaic. But there’s a crucial false assumption here. As modern English speakers, we live in a mono-lingual society. And it’s easy to project that reality onto past cultures. But most societies throughout history have been multi-lingual - including Judea in Jesus’ day. So the question is not what language Jesus spoke, but which languages and when. There’s good evidence that Jesus spoke both Greek and Hebrew as well as Aramaic and that He used these languages in different contexts throughout His ministry. Jesus grew up in Nazareth, which was near the capital of the Galilee region: Sepphoris. This city was a hub of commerce - which meant it was heavily Greek influenced. Jesus likely would have visited the city with His father and learned to speak Greek there. Of Jesus’ conversations in the gospels, at least two were likely in Greek. First, Jesus likely spoke Greek with the Roman centurion whose servant He healed, as Greek was the lingua franca, and it is unlikely the centurion knew Aramaic. For several reasons, it is also very likely that Jesus spoke Greek with Nicodemus. First, the name Nicodemus is Greek. Second, Nicodemus was an upper-class Jew, making it likely that he spoke Greek on a regular basis. And third, the nuances of their conversation suggest that it was originally in Greek. So Jesus almost certainly spoke Greek. It is also likely that He spoke Hebrew and used it regularly in His ministry. Documents like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Bar Kokhba letters, and the Mishnah attest that Hebrew was spoken for religious teaching and everyday use well into the second century AD. It is probable that Jesus would have taught His fellow Jews in Hebrew, and we find evidence of this in the details of the Sermon on the Mount and other teachings. Bottom line: as moderns, we tend to assume Jesus would have primarily spoken one language. But most of the world for most of history has been multi-lingual. And 1st century Galilee was no different. Jesus almost certainly spoke Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic - and He used them on different occasions for different purposes depending on who He was speaking to.