Re: Jesus' existence, etc split from "What language did JC speak
Wow! This discussion really jumped the track just coming out of the gate! (How is that for a mixed metaphor?)
Anyway, to get back to the original question: Jesus – assuming that he lived -- is generally thought to have spoken Aramaic. In this context, see The Invention of the Jewish People, by Shlomo Sand (Verso; New York; 2009) pp. 155-156: “In the second century BCE the rural population still spoke either Hebrew or Aramaic, most merchants communicated in Greek, and the governing and intellectual elites in Jerusalem spoke and wrote mainly in Aramaic.” As his source, Sand cites “Lee I. Levine, Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity: Conflict or Confluence? Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998” pp. 72-84. He is, of course, talking about the period before the Romans were invited into Judea to settle a squabble between claimants to the throne and then decided to stay -- apparently much to the relief of the Hellenized upper classes -- but I suspect that the situation was not that much changed by the addition of Latin speakers to the mix.
Wow! This discussion really jumped the track just coming out of the gate! (How is that for a mixed metaphor?)
Anyway, to get back to the original question: Jesus – assuming that he lived -- is generally thought to have spoken Aramaic. In this context, see The Invention of the Jewish People, by Shlomo Sand (Verso; New York; 2009) pp. 155-156: “In the second century BCE the rural population still spoke either Hebrew or Aramaic, most merchants communicated in Greek, and the governing and intellectual elites in Jerusalem spoke and wrote mainly in Aramaic.” As his source, Sand cites “Lee I. Levine, Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity: Conflict or Confluence? Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998” pp. 72-84. He is, of course, talking about the period before the Romans were invited into Judea to settle a squabble between claimants to the throne and then decided to stay -- apparently much to the relief of the Hellenized upper classes -- but I suspect that the situation was not that much changed by the addition of Latin speakers to the mix.
