Subject: Was NT Written in Greek or Hebrew? 1 |
Bible Note: Here are some further examples of random neurons firing in my brain... Has anyone noticed that the Caiaphas oussary and the more recently discovered James oussary both had the names of their occupants inscribed in Greek letters? The inscriptions were Aramaic ("Yehosef bar Kayafa'" and "Yacaqob bar Yosef ahwi Yeshuac" respectively) but were written with Greek letters. I can't claim certainty that these were the oussaries of the Biblical Caiaphas and James, but whoever they really were we know conclusively they were contemporaries of Christ. Greek writing must have been pretty well accepted to put the names of people on their grave stones. (By the way, the Caiaphas oussary is known to have contained the remains of a Sadducee family, and the James oussary is known to have contained the remains of a Pharisee family. That fact would tend to cancel out any foibles they might have had about using Greek.) I also did some digging around and found that the dedication inscriptions on synagogues in Judea from the period of the time of Christ were often in Greek. The most famous example of this is the Theodotus Inscription discovered in Mount Ophel in Jerusalem. These things tend to confirm my opinion of the usage of Greek in the time of Christ. I'd say that they might also weaken any argument about the New Testament having originally been written in something other than Greek. |