On the Language of Jesus

I have to disagree with Adnan Rashid’s statement from a recent video, that we have no idea which language Jesus spoke. As for the Muslim scholars, some were of the view that Jesus’ native tongue was Hebrew such as Ibn Taymiyya, whilst others said it was Syriac, probably unaware that Syriac technically is a dialect of Aramaic that appeared after first century BC. However, through historical linguistics we can more accurately understand which languages were spoken in first century Palestine.

Aramaic became the lingua franca, the international language of the Middle East, especially under the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire in the 6th century BC. The Persians adopted Aramaic as the administrative language of their vast empire, which stretched from Egypt in the west to India in the east, allowing people across diverse regions to communicate.

After Alexander the Great’s conquests in the 4th century BC, Koine Greek replaced Aramaic as the main international language. Yet Aramaic continued to flourish as the everyday spoken language of ordinary people throughout the Levant, including Palestine, where several regional dialects developed.

By the first century AD, during the time of Jesus, there is little doubt that a Palestinian dialect of Aramaic was his native tongue and the main language he used in daily communication and teaching. However, philologists debate to which extent Jesus could communicate in Greek, which was used in trade and among the educated classes. And also, it is debated to which extent he knew Hebrew, which functioned primarily as a scholarly language among religious leaders, but also as a vernacular amongst some Jewish groups. This makes it highly probable that he must have had some form of fluency in Hebrew and incorporated it in his teachings.

Additionally, according to many modern scholars, Q, the hypothetical source(s) for Luke and Matthew, reflects both an Aramaic and Hebrew background, whether in the form of oral traditions later written down in Greek, or Semitic material translated into Greek. The same can be said about the sources for Mark and John.

In short, Jesus lived in a tri-lingual Palestine, where Aramaic was his everyday spoken language. I believe Muslims should take an active interest in the ongoing efforts to reconstruct first-century Galilean Aramaic, as it offers a valuable way to understand the linguistic and cultural world in which Jesus lived. Engaging with this language can help us connect with him on a deeper level. Many will be surprised to discover the remarkable overlap in religious vocabulary between Aramaic and Arabic (which I will write more about in the future).