The Bible was originally written in the ancient languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek over a period of many centuries. Although sometimes referred to as “dead” languages (because they are not commonly spoken in the same format today), all three of these languages are very much alive.
Though they’ve changed a lot since Biblical times, descendants of these languages are still actively used today in the same parts of the world the events of the Bible happened in. And of course, even the ancient words are alive with the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit flowing through them.
This post will help you gain a basic understanding of the Bible’s original languages.
Of course, a single blog post won’t be enough to actually learn Greek or Hebrew — that would take years of careful study! But learning a little about them can provide invaluable background to the cultures and civilizations God chose to receive his unique revelation.
And it can help clarify some of the challenges translators face to make the words of Scripture readable in modern English, without changing — or losing — the depth and nuance of their meaning.
What Was the Language of the Old Testament?
The Old Testament was written almost entirely in Hebrew, the ancient Middle Eastern language spoken by the Jewish people. A few parts of the Old Testament — namely, Daniel 2:4b–7:28 and Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26 — were written in Aramaic.
Hebrew: The Language of the Israelites
As Biblical Hebrew gradually evolved into Aramaic and other regional languages (and as Jews increasingly assimilated into local communities in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere), it stopped being used for everyday speech long before New Testament times.
But it remained in use liturgically in Jewish communities (who only ever read the Scriptures in their original languages) until it was intentionally revived by European Jews in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Aramaic: The Language of Jesus
Aramaic is a descendant of Hebrew that was widely spoken in the Middle East in the centuries leading up to the birth of Jesus. In fact, Aramaic was Jesus’s native language — the one he used to deliver his teachings to his disciples. It is still spoken by a few scattered communities in the Middle East today.
Reading the Old Testament in Its Original Languages
Hebrew and Aramaic are both part of the Semitic family of languages, which also includes Arabic. They are written right-to-left (unlike English, which is of course left-to-right).
One of their unique characteristics is that, in their written forms, they originally didn’t include vowels at all. (Modern Hebrew now usually adds them in.) Because ancient languages typically also didn’t use spaces or lowercase letters, this makes reading the Old Testament in its most ancient, original form extremely challenging.
MGNRDNGVRTHNGLKTHS — backwards — for hundreds of pages (or scrolls)!
What Was the Language of the New Testament?
The New Testament was written in Greek — specifically, in a dialect called Koine (or common) Greek, to distinguish it from the more complex, sophisticated Greek of ancient Athens and Sparta.
Why “common”? And why wasn’t it written in Jesus’s (and his disciples’) own language of Aramaic?
Greek: The Language of the Mediterranean
After Alexander the Great conquered Judaea around the 330s BC, the region became increasingly influenced by Greek culture and language. By the time of Jesus — when the area was under Roman rule — the entire eastern Mediterranean spoke some form of Greek (in addition to their native tongues).
Its widespread use made it a convenient choice for anyone trying to communicate or do business across cultures. However, since many of these people spoke it as a second language, it became mixed with many different regional dialects to create a simplified, standardized version of the Greek compared to what was spoken in Greece itself. (This is actually very similar to how American English evolved in the early colonies.)
Greek: The Language of the Disciples (Sort Of)
When Jesus’s disciples began traveling to spread the Good News of his resurrection, they mostly used Koine Greek to reach the widest population they could — even if it wasn’t the language they used with each other.
In some cases, like the Gospel of Mark, the unique style (such as starting many sentences with kai, “and” — a standard format in Aramaic but very unusual in Greek) shows how the story was originally told in Aramaic, and then written down in Greek as it spread beyond the region of Galilee where Jesus lived and performed his miracles and ministries.
Were Any Parts of the Bible Written in Latin?
It may surprise you to learn that none of the Bible was written in Latin — despite Judaea being under Roman rule. Though parts of the Bible started being translated into Latin soon after they appeared in Greek, a complete Latin Bible didn’t exist until the early 400s AD, when Jerome completed his Vulgate.
The Vulgate caught on quickly and became the exclusive way the Bible was read and transmitted in western Europe for centuries.
When Was the Bible First Translated into English?
The first complete translation of the entire Bible into English was Wycliffe’s Bible, released in the late 1300s. John Wycliffe and his followers based their translation on the Vulgate, since the original Hebrew and Greek texts were still unavailable in the West. Because it had to be hand-copied and distributed, it didn’t reach a wide audience, but it was still enough to earn Wycliffe a condemnation for heresy 30 years after his death.
After that, it was over 100 years before another comprehensive attempt was made to translate the Bible into English. William Tyndale published his English New Testament in 1526 using the brand-new printing press… and was martyred 10 years later for doing so.
The first English Bible to really catch on with the masses was the Geneva Bible of 1560, which was used by the first pilgrims to America. Why “Geneva”? Because the translators were hiding out in Switzerland so they wouldn’t meet Tyndale’s fate back in England.
Their Bible proved so popular, however, that King James felt compelled to finally make an “authorized” English version. Released in 1611, it became the King James Version we know and love today.
Why Study the Bible in Its Original Languages?
The world has changed a lot in the thousands of years since the Bible was written. Making its ancient words comprehensible to a modern English reader is an enormous challenge, filled with countless choices about exactly the best way to render any given word or phrase.
Here’s just one example among thousands that translators of the Bible have to contend with: our daily bread.
Sounds simple, right?
Our Daily, Necessary, Supersubstantial Bread for the Future
In the original Greek of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:11, the phrase is “Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον” (ton arton hēmōn ton epiousion). Arton means “bread.” Hēmōn means “ours.” Epiousion means… well, no one knows for sure. Outside of the parallel passage in Luke 11:3, the word isn’t found anywhere else in ancient Greek — we’re talking thousands and thousands of documents.
What did Jesus mean by it?
The King James translators (and Tyndale before them) supplied “daily,” based mostly on an early Latin translation of the passage. But there isn’t really any reason to assume that’s what it means.
A much more popular theory in the early church (including Jerome and Augustine) was that it meant something like “supersubstantial” — or spiritual — and referred to the bread of the Eucharist. This is still one of the preferred interpretations in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Other scholars (both ancient and modern) have suggested “necessary,” while still others proposed “for the future (or tomorrow).”
But regardless of the translation or meaning you prefer, the point is that, in English, you have to pick one. When you read Matthew in its original Greek, however, you can sit much closer to the mystery — just as Christians have been doing for thousands of years — and wonder, what did God mean by that?
After all, the words he chose are no accident.
Conclusion: It’s All Greek — and Hebrew — to Us
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of the languages the Bible was written in: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek — including some of the challenges that go into translating those languages for a modern, English-speaking audience.
Of course, taking the time to learn even one of those languages, let alone all three, is far beyond what most of our schedules would allow.
Fortunately, there are great resources available to help you understand the original meanings of the Bible, with limited or no linguistic training. You can read multiple translations side-by-side to see some of the different nuances in the way words are translated. You can pick up a Study Bible by a scholar (or several) who can read the original languages fluently and provides commentary on complex passages. And you can use a resource like the NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible to see the original words beneath the translation.
Better yet, why not try all three?
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Jacob holds a Master of Theological Studies in Early Christian Thought from Harvard Divinity School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious History from Memorial University of Newfoundland, though with most of his coursework from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. His work has appeared in Ekstasis and in Geez Magazine's "Embracing Darkness" Advent devotional. He is currently Editorial Director of Bible Gateway.
