MORE FROM MARK D. ROBERTS on the languages Jesus may have spoken:
Examining "the Biblical Truth" That Jesus Spoke Hebrew Part I and Part II
Bottom line: sometimes in the New Testament
Hebraidi [Greek word now the correct form] clearly means "in Aramaic." Usage trumps etymology.
Did Jesus Speak Greek?
The circumstantial case is good:
Though the New Testament Gospels do not tell us whether Jesus spoke Greek or not, they do describe situations in which it's likely that Greek was used. In Matthew 8:5-13, for example, Jesus entered into dialogue with a Roman centurion. The centurion almost certainly spoke in Greek. And, as Matthew tells the story, he and Jesus spoke directly, without a translator. Of course it's always possible that a translator was used and simply not mentioned by Matthew. Still, the sense of the story suggests more immediate communication, which would have been in Greek.
The same could be said about Jesus' conversation with Pontius Pilate prior to his crucifixion (Matthew 27:11-14; John 18:33-38). Once again, there is the possibility of an unmentioned translator. But the telling of the story points to a Greek-speaking Jesus. (Pilate would have used Greek, not Latin, as imagined by Mel Gibson in The Passion of the Christ. And it's unlikely that he would have known or used Aramaic. Pilate was not the sort of man who would stoop to use the language of common Jews.)
If Jesus knew enough Greek to converse with a Roman centurion and a Roman governor, where did he learn it? Some have suggested that he might have learned it during his early years in Egypt. A more likely explanation points to his location in Galilee. Though Aramaic was the first language of Nazareth, Jesus' hometown was a short walk from Sepphoris, which was a major city and one in which Greek was spoken. Jesus quite probably had clients in Sepphoris who utilized his carpentry services, and he would have spoken with them in Greek.
But given the multi-lingual context in which Jesus lived, it's not surprising that he would have been reasonably fluent in Greek and Hebrew, in addition to Aramaic. People in the United States often have a hard time understanding this. But if you've known people who have grown up in Europe, for example, they often can get by in several languages, including English, German, Spanish, and French, even if their first language is Italian.
Earlier installments
here.
