Roman Judaea
Is it true that Aramaic was the common language among the jews in the Roman Judaea?
” Back in the 1800’s, some highly educated “intellectuals” got together and decided that the language of Jews in first century “Palestine” was Aramaic. Some 5,000 rabbinic parables from that period of time have come down to us, all in Hebrew. Extensive archeological excavations since 1968 have taken place in Israel. No Aramaic inscriptions from the Roman period have been found. ”
” The Dead Seas Scrolls are for the most part, written in Hebrew”
was it hebrew or aramaic?
(avoid wikipedia quotes please)
Gray Pict is right. Aramaic (a Semitic language related to Syriac and Arabic) was the normal cradle tongue, Hebrew was the ritual language as it had been for centuries, and as it is still in the Jewish religion. Most inhabitants of the area (both Jews and others) also spoke a dialect of Greek which was the common trading language of the whole Mediterranean basin, and a fair few would also speak Latin, the language of the imperial power.
As a matter of interest, we do not know whether Jesus’s public pronouncements were in Aramaic or in Koine Greek. It would make a difference: if in Greek, he would consciously be addressing himself to a wider audience; if in Aramaic, only to the local (almost exclusively Jewish) community. Unfortunately we have no way of finding out.
Tagged as:
roman judaea,
roman judaea wikipedia,
roman judea,
roman judea map