| First of all, Scripture itself says the language of the Rab Yahushua and His disciples was Hebrew—not Greek, nor Aramaic/Aramit. Luke 23:38: “And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” IF Yahushua and the Jews spoke ARAMAIC, as many have been misled to believe, why is not Aramaic listed rather than Hebrew? After all, this sign was written for the vast majority of Israelis, including the common folk. Just this single scriptural proof alone is overwhelmingly compelling, but there is much more. Yochanan/”John” 5:2: “Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.” Notice that the Greek says here, as in every one of the quotations below, “hebraisti,” (obviously), “Hebrew.” Yochanan/John 19:13: “When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Yeshuah forth, and sat down on the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.” |
Yochanan/”John” 19:17: “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.”
Yochanan/”John” 19:20:” Many of the Jews then read this title: for the place where Yeshuah was nailed was near to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.”
Acts 21:40: “And when he had given him permission, Shaul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand to the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying...”
Acts 22:2: “(And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)”
Acts 26:14: “And when we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking to me, and saying in the Hebrew language, Shaul, Shaul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
HEREIN (above) IT SAYS DIRECTLY, WITHOUT ANY DOUBT WHATSOEVER THAT YAHUSHUA DID NOT SPEAK GREEK NOR ARAMAIC, BUT HEBREW! Whom should one trust: man, who has attempted to beguile many or scripture (and Yahushua Himself)? And obviously Shaul (later Apostle Paul, in English) understood Hebrew, who was educated at the feet of a Hebrew speaking scholar. All added proofs that Hebrew was very active in Israel during the times of Yahushua and beyond.
Revelation 9:11: “And they had a king over them, who is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew language is Abaddon, but in the Greek language he hath his name Apollyon.”
Revelation 16:16: “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Har Meguido (Mount Meguido)/’Armageddon’.”
Other interesting scriptures to consider are John (Yochanan) 1:41 and John (Yochanan) 4:25. Both of these scriptures utilize interesting phrases.
"...we have found the Messiah (Mashiyach) which is, being interpreted, the Christ (Mashiyach)." John (Yochanan) 1:41
and
"...I know that Messiah (Mashiyach) cometh, which is called Christ (Mashiyach)..." John (Yochanan) 4:25
First, the rendering of the above scriptures are odd. But it does provide two infallible proofs that the Greek usage of Christos (Christ) is a translated (interpreted-methermeneuo) deviation from the proper (Hebrew) word Mashiyach. The Greek translators clearly admit/confirm that Christos is a Greek translation and NOT the original Hebrew word that was used; this is included within the scriptural text itself.
Secondly, the above two scriptures provide an inextricable link to Daniel 9:25 and Daniel 9:26 where the term Mashiyach first appears in Old Testament (Hebrew) scripture. And, Yahushua confirmed that he was in fact the Mashiyach (Daniel 9:25-26) of whom Daniel the prophet spoke of and the one about which the woman of Samaria referred to (John 4:26). What is interesting to note is that Yahushua called Daniel a prophet (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14) when the Jewish canonized Bible (Old Testament) did not include/recognize Daniel among the prophets.
Other observations include things like this. What did Yahushua refer to when He said in Matitiahuh/Mat. 5:18: “...not a jot/“yoot” nor a tittle (the little “crown” on top of the yoot) will pass...”? Both refer to the Hebrew alphabet. Why would Yahushua refer to Hebrew with an audience who spoke Aramaic, and thus would not have understood Him? If an English speaking audience was told, that “Yahushua should be “accented” on the “u,” very few people would understand, since accents are almost nonexistent in English, except for a few words like “fiancé”, etc.
Despite this ample scriptural proof, various translations, especially the NIV, have falsified the original “Hebraisti” (which does not require one to be a Greek scholar to understand it says "Hebrew") for "Aramaic." Why? Is it the same reason they have changed the name of Yahushua´s half-brother Yaakov to “Saint James”? Was it perhaps to honor England´s King James, who was about to supply the monies for the translation of the Bible, and finally did not?
In spite of the many scriptural proofs in the New Testament (Covenant) itself, and those from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Talmud and those of Josephus, there are coins and inscriptions from the time of Yahushua that nail "the Aramaic coffin" and the "Greek coffin" shut once and for all, especially for those who are after facts. For example, in the book, by Bivin and Blizzard, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus: "The evidence provided by coins is also important in trying to evaluate the linguistic situation in the time of Yahushua Mashiyach. Yaakov Meshorer, curator of the Numismatic Department of the Israel Museum, and its numismatic expert, has listed 215 Jewish coins in his catalogue. Of these 215 Jewish coins, 99 have Hebrew inscriptions, only one has an Aramaic inscription! From the fourth century B.C. (later Persian Period) until the end of the Bar-Cochba Revolt in 135 A.D., the entire history of Jewish coinage, only one Jewish coin, minted during the reign of Alexander Jannaeous (103-76 B.C.) is inscribed in Aramaic." (Bivin and Blizzard, 1988).
"At Masada, Herod`s stronghold overlooking the Dead Sea, archaeologists excavated from 1963 to 1965 under the direction of Professor Yigael Yadin. The epigraphical evidence is staggering: fragments of 14 scrolls, over 4,000 coins, and more than 700 ostraka (inscribed pottery fragments) in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. Here too, the ratio of Hebrew to Aramaic exceeds nine to one." (ibid.)
This is why it is significant that Yahushua asked for a coin (Matthew 22:17-21) when challenged with a tribute (tax) question. When a Roman coin (denarius/dinar) was brought to him, he asked about the inscription and from that he differentiated between what belonged to Rome (Roman coins/currency) as compared to what belonged to Israel, to YHVH (Jewish coins/currency).
It is also interesting to note that there are over 5366 manuscripts of the New Testament in Greek, each differing from the other and containing several hundred variants. However, in each one of these manuscripts there are idioms (Hebraisms) which are almost meaningless in any language-including Greek--except in Hebrew! How can such a thing be explained unless it is because the original New Testament was written in Hebrew by Hebrews (Jews) containing Jewish idioms not easily translated?
There are many of these Hebraisms, one of which, being the most common, is "Son of man". What does "Son of man" mean in English, Spanish, German, in any language? Absolutely nothing--except for Hebrew. The expression "Ben Adam" means literally "son of Adam" and by extension "son of man", and "man", Adam, being, of course, the first man alive. In any street corner in Israel one might hear the idiom, "here comes this Ben Adam", meaning "here comes this man." This example, which occurs no less than 92 times in the Tanakh and 43 times in the New Testament (Cruden's Concordance), is obviously the same Hebrew idiom.
Some have argued that the New Testament (Covenant) was written in Koine Greek, (common Greek), because it is found to be a poor kind of Greek. But when these many Hebraisms are are found within the text, one begins to understand that it is not Koine Greek lying there in the substratum of the text, but a Hebrew original which was almost literally translated into Greek, which makes it sound like poor Greek.
Here is another scriptural (NT) Hebraistic idiom example, "Peace be to you". It appears twelve times in the New Testament (Covenant). What kind of a greeting is "Peace be to you" in French, English, Spanish, or any other language--except in Hebrew? Again, it is meaningless. Only in Hebrew does it make any real sense. This is the most common, everyday greeting in Israel today, the worldwide famous "shalom", literally meaning "peace", but really it is an everyday greeting meaning anything from "Hi", to "How are you?", depending on the intonation and the mood of the speaker.
The third and final scriptural proof of the Hebrew character of the New Testament (Covenant) is the use of two very Jewish ways of speaking, i.e., the repeating of things twice, and the answering of a question with another question. Yahushua did both of these quite often. In Matthew 27:46: "...My Elohim, my Elohim, why hast thou forsaken me?" and in Luke 20:2-3: "And spoke unto him, saying, Tell me, by what authority doest thou these things?" or "Who is he that gave thee this authority?" And he answered and said unto them, "I will also ask you one thing and answer me..." What is important to stress here is that these two characteristics, especially the former, comes with the Hebrew, not something commonly found with other languages. It does not appear in the English, or in any European language, for instance.
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