What Language did our Lord Use?

ALTHOUGH the Old Testament was written in Hebrew with the exception of portions of Ezra, Jeremiah, and Daniel, which were written in Chaldaic, and although the New Testament was written in Greek, the language spoken by our Lord to the people of his time was neither Hebrew nor Greek. The Hebrew language ceased to be the language of the common people in the Jewish nation during the seventy years' captivity in Babylon. There they adopted the language of the Chaldeans, their conquerors, giving it of course a Hebraic cast. The Chaldaic or Aramic language, which indeed was much like the Hebrew, being thus adopted was, as a matter of course, retained during the five hundred years that elapsed before the Son of God began his work among men. In this time, however, the language underwent changes, and became so far different from the original Chaldaic that it is called the Syro-Chaldaic language. This was perhaps as nearly like the Chaldaic as the English language of to-day is like that spoken by our ancestors five hundred years since. The Syriac was used in our Lord's time by the people of quite an extensive region. The Jews of that time spoke a language compounded of Chaldaic and Syriac. This was the language of our Lord's discourses. We might reasonably infer this from the fact that it was the language of the common people. But we know it to be the case because the very expressions used by him are in many cases preserved.

It is true that this language is termed in the New Testament the Hebrew tongue. But this is not because that it is the original, pure Hebrew, but because it was the language of the Hebrew people of that time, and because it resembled that tongue. It was in this modern kind of Hebrew that our Lord's inscription was written upon his cross; and it was in this that Paul addressed the people from the castle stairs. Luke 23:38; Acts 22:2.

The evangelists, though writing in Greek, frequently desired to preserve the exact expressions used by our Lord. So they introduce the very words of that language in which our Lord spoke, and then they interpret them. Thus he says to the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, "Talitha cumi," which signifies, "Damsel, arise." Mark 5:41. This explains why the evangelists occasionally give our Lord's exact words and then interpret them.

ANATHEMA MARAN-ATHA.

We have in these words in 1 Cor. 16:22 an instance of the use of the Syro-Chaldaic language by the New Testament writers. Maranatha is a term of that language signifying, "The Lord cometh." It seems to have been introduced by Paul, though writing in Greek, for the purpose of emphasis. Anathama is Greek, signifying accursed. The sentence, therefore, amounts to this: "If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed at the coming of the Lord."

WHO WAS CEPHAS?

"When James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me," etc. Gal. 2:9. "Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ." 1 Cor. 1:12. This is a name given by our Lord himself to Simon. It is a word signifying in the language then used by the Hebrew people, a stone. It is therefore exactly equivalent to his more common Greek surname, Peter. John 1:42.

WHAT DOES SIMON BAR-JONA SIGNIFY?

This is the designation of Peter used by our Lord in responding to his noble confession of faith recorded in Matt. 16:16, 17. Bar is a Syriac word signifying son. The expression is therefore in meaning simply this: Simon son of Jonas.