|
It is generally agreed that Jesus and his disciples primarily spoke Aramaic, the common language of Judea in the first century AD, most likely a Galilean dialect distinguishable from that of Jerusalem. The towns of Nazareth and Capernaum in Galilee, where Jesus spent most of his time, were Aramaic-speaking communities.〔(Aramaic language - Encyclopedia Britannica )〕 ==Cultural and linguistic background== Aramaic was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean during and after the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenid Empires (722–330 BC) and remained a common language of the region in the first century AD. In spite of the increasing importance of Greek, the use of Aramaic was also expanding, and it would eventually be dominant among Jews both in the Holy Land and elsewhere in the Middle East around 200 AD and would remain so until the Islamic conquests in the seventh century.〔Frederick E. Greenspahn. An Introduction to Aramaic - Second Edition, 2003. ISBN 1-58983-059-8.〕〔(Aramaic Language: The Language of Christ ). Mountlebanon.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.〕 According to Dead Sea Scrolls archaeologist, Yigael Yadin, Aramaic was the language of Hebrews until Simon Bar Kokhba's revolt (132 AD to 135 AD). Yadin noticed the shift from Aramaic to Hebrew in the documents he studied, which had been written during the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt. In his book, "Bar Kokhba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome," Yigael Yadin notes, "It is interesting that the earlier documents are written in Aramaic while the later ones are in Hebrew. Possibly the change was made by a special decree of Bar Kokhba who wanted to restore Hebrew as the official language of the state" (p. 181). In another book, "A Roadmap to the Heavens: An Anthropological Study of Hegemony among Priests, Sages, and Laymen (Judaism and Jewish Life)" by Sigalit Ben-Zion (p. 155), Yadin said: "it seems that this change came as a result of the order that was given by Bar Kokhba, who wanted to revive the Hebrew language and make it the official language of the state." According to Hebrew historian Josephus, Greek was not spoken in first century Palestine. Josephus also points out the extreme rarity of a Jew knowing Greek.〔(The Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus ). Gutenberg.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.〕 Josephus wrote: His testimony agrees with Yadin, who points out that Aramaic was the lingua franca at the time.〔Book "Bar Kokhba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome" p. 234〕 In the first century AD, the Aramaic language was widespread throughout the Middle East, as is supported by the testimony of Josephus's ''The Jewish War''.〔(Josephus: Jewish War, Book 1 (a) - translation ). Attalus.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-28.〕 Josephus points out how people from what are now Iran, Iraq and remote parts of the Arabian Peninsula knew all about the war of the Jews against the Romans because of the books he wrote "in the language of our country", books he then translated into Greek for the benefit of the Greeks and Romans: H. St. J. Thackeray (who translated Josephus' ''Jewish Wars'' from Greek into English) also point out, "We learn from the proem that the Greek text was not the first draft of the work. It had been preceded by a narrative written in Aramaic and addressed to "the barbarians in the interior", who are more precisely defined lower down as the natives of Parthia, Babylonia, and Arabia, the Jewish dispersion in Mesopotamia, and the inhabitants of Adiabene, a principality of which the reigning house, as was proudly remembered, were converts to Judaism (B. i, 3, 6). Of this Aramaic work the Greek is described as a "version" made for the benefit of the subjects of the Roman Empire, i.e. the Graeco-Roman world at large.〔JOSEPHUS WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY H. ST. J. THACKERAY, M.A, IN NINE VOLUMES, II THE JEWISH WAR, BOOKS I-III, INTRODUCTION, PAGE IX〕 In Acts 1:19, the "Field of Blood" was known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem in their own language as ''Akeldama'', which is the transliteration of the Aramaic words "Haqal Dama".〔Book "What do Jewish People think about Jesus?" by Dr. Michael Brown, Page 39〕 Josephus differentiated Hebrew from his language and that of first-century Israel. Josephus refers to Hebrew words as belonging to "the Hebrew tongue" but refers to Aramaic words as belonging to "our tongue" or "our language" or "the language of our country." Below are some examples from Josephus' works: Hebrew Josephus refers to a Hebrew word with the phrase "the Hebrew tongue": "But the affairs of the Canaanites were at this time in a flourishing condition, and they expected the Israelites with a great army at the city Bezek, having put the government into the hands of Adonibezek, which name denotes the Lord of Bezek, for Adoni in the Hebrew tongue signifies Lord."〔Josephus' Antiquities Book 5. Chapter 2. Paragraph 2〕 Aramaic In this example, Josephus refers to an Aramaic word as belonging to "our language": "This new-built part of the city was called 'Bezetha,' in our language, which, if interpreted in the Grecian language, may be called 'the New City.'"〔Wars Book 5, Chapter 4, Paragraph 2〕 Unlike Josephus and other Hebrew priests at Jerusalem, the people of first-century Israel had no knowledge of Hebrew, as is confirmed throughout New Testament. On several occasions in New Testament, Aramaic words are called Hebrew. For example, in John 19:17 (KJV), the gospel-writer narrates that Jesus, "bearing his cross() went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha." the last word is, in fact, Aramaic. The word "Golgotha" is a transliteration of an Aramaic word, because ''-tha'' in ''Golgotha'' is the Aramaic definite article on a feminine noun in an emphatic state.〔Book "Introduction to Syriac" by Wheeler Thackston, Page 44〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Language of Jesus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|