Did Jesus Know Greek?

One topic of discussion is whether Jesus knew Greek. One scholar we can turn to is Dr. Porter. He writes: "Regarding the influence of Greek in lower Galilee, evidence is increasing that it was the Palestinian area most heavily influenced by Greek language and culture. Referred to as the 'Galilee of the Gentiles' in Matthew 4:15, lower Galilee was a center for trade among the Mediterranean, Sea of Galilee and Decapolis regions. Galilee was completely surrounded by hellenistic culture," (Porter 209-210). Israel was a place with heavy Greek influences, so it is quite plausible that Jesus would have known or spoken in Greek. Jesus was also said to be a carpenter (Mark 6:3), so it would be a much-needed skill to know Greek so that he could speak with a larger variety of clients.

Dr. Porter says later: "Papyri and literary texts further establish the widespread use of Greek in Palestine. There have been a number of papyrus texts (including a number of fragments) found in Palestine written in Greek by Jews," (Porter 214). We have many documents written around Israel in Greek, one such being written by Bar Kokhba, a Hebrew general who tried to regain Israel from the Romans in the early 2nd century.

In the book, Ancient Jewish Epitaphs, Pieter Willem van der Horst writes: "The distribution of languages over the extant Jewish inscriptions from the ancient Mediterranean world is very revealing ... many of the Jewish inscriptions from Rome 78% are in Greek ... they maintained their own language which was (not Hebrew but) Greek," (Horst 22-23). This shows that Greek was predominant in Jewish circles.

Another reason to believe that Jesus spoke Greek is Matthew 5: "Jesus starts his opening speech with alliteration of Greek words. The first four beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-6 all begin with pi (π):

”Blessed are the poor (πτωχοὶ - ‘ptochoi’)…”
”…those who mourn (πενθοῦντες - ‘penthountes’)…”
”…the meek (πραεῖς - ‘praeis’)…”
”…those who hunger (πεινῶντες - ‘peinontes’)…”

In fact, Greek alliteration is all over the place in this sermon. Matthew 5:6 states, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Thirst is the word “διψῶντες” (dipsontes) and righteousness is “δικαιοσύνην” (dikaiosynen). Matthew 5:8 goes on to say “Blessed are the pure in heart.” “Pure” is the word “καθαροὶ,” (katharoi) “heart” is the word “καρδίᾳ” (kardia). They are kappa alpha (κα) repeats," (Huff). The passage uses a great sum of Greek alliteration, such aspects would not be present if this was originally spoken in Hebrew or Aramaic. These facts make it very likely that Jesus knew Greek.

References:

Horst, Pieter Willem van der. Ancient Jewish epitaphs: an introductory survey of a millennium of Jewish funerary epigraphy (300 BCE-700 CE). Netherlands, Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1991.

Huff, Wesley. “Did Jesus Speak Greek?” Wesley Huff, Wesley Huff, 17 Jan. 2020, www.wesleyhuff.com/blog/2019/12/16/did-Jesus-speak-greek.

Image by Alessandro Bellone on Unsplash

Porter, Stanley E. “Did Jesus Ever Teach in Greek?” Tyndale Bulletin, vol. 44, no. 2, 1 Nov. 1993, pp. 209–214, https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30458.

Ward, Mark. “Did Jesus Speak Greek?” Word by Word, 9 Dec. 2015, www.logos.com/grow/did-Jesus-speak-greek/.