What is the real Greek of the New Testament? Koine Greek or Aramaic? Wikipedia says suggests it is Aramaic Greek, but I was taught it was Koine Greek but you can find many websites that say it was Koine Greek, this has become very confusing to me. Which is correct? What language did Jesus and the apostles speak?<\/p>\n
Thanks in advance.<\/p>\n\t
The New Testament was written in a form of Greek known as Koine Greek or Common Greek. This is the form of Greek that was used around the Roman Empire where Greek was not the common language. It was the Greek used by the everyday person. Classical Greek is the form of Greek used by famous Greek philosophers. The difference between Classical Greek and Koine Greek is similar to the differences between Shakespearean English and American English.<\/p>\n
Aramaic is a completely different language that is in the same family of languages as the Hebrew language. It was the regional language people spoke, especially in the northern regions of Israel during Jesus’ day. It would have been the language Jesus and the disciples spoke most often.<\/p>\n
Unlike the United States, people in that time usually spoke several languages. There was the language of your neighborhood (Aramaic), the language you used to talk to foreigners and to do business (Koine Greek), the language of the government (Latin), and the language you used for religious services (Hebrew).<\/p>\n
The New Testament has some Aramaic and Latin words and phrases, but the language it was written in was Koine Greek. It is easy to see why God picked this language: it insured widespread understanding of the Bible since in the Roman Empire Koine Greek was the most prevalent language. If you didn’t know what someone else spoke, you would usually start with Koine Greek. (It is sort of like how English is today commonly spoken around the world.)<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: What is the real Greek of the New Testament? Koine Greek or Aramaic? Wikipedia says suggests it is Aramaic Greek, but I was taught it was Koine Greek but you can find many websites that say it was Koine Greek, this has become very confusing to me. Which is correct? What language did Jesus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[219,1574,799],"class_list":["post-39665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-bible","tag-greek-language","tag-new-testament"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":95575,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/koine-greek-discovered-as-the-new-testament-language-in-the-1890s\/","url_meta":{"origin":39665,"position":0},"title":"Koine Greek – Discovered as the New Testament Language in the 1890s","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Luther Martin via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 1, March 1995 It could be considered one of the most mysterious yet most important detective stories of ancient and modern times. The God of heaven had provided a collection of sixty-six separately written books, designed to instruct mankind in morally upright\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18510,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/its-greek-to-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":39665,"position":1},"title":"It’s Greek To Me","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Roger Blackwelder Some questions were raised recently about the value of having a knowledge of New Testament Greek.\u00a0 Some have used arguments based on the translations of words to authorize immorality that the Bible clearly condemns.\u00a0 This usage of Greek is disturbing; it casts a shadow on an otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/Greek-Manuscript.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19744,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-translations-in-greek-instead-of-hebrew-the-language-jesus-spoke-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":39665,"position":2},"title":"Why are translations in Greek instead of Hebrew, the language Jesus spoke in?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are all of your translations in Greek instead of Hebrew, which would be the language Jesus spoke in? Answer: The following is specific toward Matthew, which is usually the one book people like to claim was originally written in Hebrew:\u00a0Was Matthew originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic? The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28480,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-new-testament-written-in-greek-or-aramaic\/","url_meta":{"origin":39665,"position":3},"title":"Was the New Testament written in Greek or Aramaic?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In what language was the New Testament written: Greek or Aramaic? Answer: The New Testament was written in Greek. All the earliest manuscripts are in Greek. The style of writing is in the Greek style, though some of the writers, such as Matthew, wrote with a Hebrew \"accent,\" if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14214,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-new-testament-was-written-in-hebrew-not-greek\/","url_meta":{"origin":39665,"position":4},"title":"The New Testament was written in Hebrew, not Greek!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You seem to teach that the original New Testament was originally written in Greek. I hate to differ with you. Nowhere is that fact proven. I believe that Luke may have written his manuscript in Greek, since he was of Syrian descent and also perhaps the books of Acts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/John-Rylands-Fragment-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14839,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-we-use-yeshua-instead-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":39665,"position":5},"title":"Why don’t we use Yeshua instead of Jesus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Someone asked me why Yeshua, which is believed to be the real name of Christ, is never used today because of the English translation. Jesus is believed to be a corruption of Yeshua. What is your view on this? 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