In which languages were the Scriptures of The Holy Bible originally written?
Proto-Sinaitic script was used in the Sinai Peninsula from 1850-1200 B.C., plus or minus a few hundred years, and it coexisting with Egyptian hieroglyphics. People eventually began to assign phonetic values or sounds to the hieroglyphs, which lead to the development of the first alphabet. Each hieroglyph represented an entire word, so the initial sound of the hieroglyph became the first letter of its word. Since there were roughly 22 spoken sounds, 22 hieroglyphs were chosen to represent the alphabet of the spoken language. The Proto-Sinaitic script and Egyptian hieroglyphics lead to the development of the Phoenician alphabet (Ancient Semitic/Hebrew) in 1200 B.C., plus or minus a few hundred years.
Moses lived from approximately 1393-1273 B.C., plus or minus a hundred years. According to tradition, the Torah (first 5 Chapters of the Old Testament) was dictated to Moses by God (YaH), except for the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, which describe the death of Moses. This belief is derived from what is recorded in the Mishnah, and it is also derived from Deuteronomy 31:24-26. Moses would have likely recorded the Torah in clay with the Phoenician alphabet because clay was often used as a writing tablet during this time in history. However, Moses recorded many commandments on large stones that were coated with plaster (Deuteronomy 27:1,2).
A variation of the Phoenician alphabet developed into the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet during the 10th century B.C., plus or minus a hundred years, and this alphabet became known as "ancient" Hebrew. The Torah, also known as the Five Books of Moses, or the Law of Moses, was written in ancient Hebrew onto scrolls from approximately 400-600 B.C., plus or minus a hundred years.
During the 5th century B.C., plus or minus a hundred years, Paleo-Hebrew began to get slowly replaced by Aramaic or Square-Script Hebrew. Aramaic or Square-Script Hebrew is also referred to as "Biblical Hebrew" because this was the alphabet used to scribe the Old Testament and other ancient Biblical texts.
In the Old Testament of The Holy Bible, Psalms 119 lists the 22 consonants of the Late Biblical Hebrew language. Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem, the stanzas of which begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses of each stanza begin with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Vowel sounds are indicated by placing various dots or small lines around these consonants. The vowel points were left off the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (or possibly YHVH), which is the name of God (YaH) (Exodus 3:15), so the pronunciation of His full name is currently unverifiable.
During the first century, the languages spoken in Galilee and Judea were Semitic Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, but most of the people spoke Aramaic. Most scholars believe Jesus (Yeshua) spoke Aramaic, but he might have also spoken Hebrew and possibly even Greek. Greek was prevalent in cosmopolitan trading and business locations such as Caesaria, which did not include Galilee. Apostles Peter, James, and John had been making their livings fishing, so they would have likely written in their native language, Hebrew or Aramaic, but not in a second language such as Greek. For example, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13 (NIV)).
Greek had become a common language because much of the area had been claimed by the Seleucid Empire (312-63 B.C.), which considered Greek to be the official language. Many of the Jewish people living outside of Israel spoke Greek as their first language. The largest Jewish community of the world was located in Alexandria (Egypt). Therefore, first the Torah, and later other Jewish scriptures were translated into the common Koine Greek language, and these writings became known as the Septuagint. Many of the Greek texts of the New Testament were written by Jews who were living outside Israel, such as Paul of Tarsus and possibly his Gentile companion, Luke. A majority of the Greek texts were addressed to Christian communities which were located in cities where Greek was the primary language, and these communities often consisted of Paul's converts, many of which were non-Jewish. The style of their Greek was impeccable in the texts, so the texts were probably originals and not translations from texts written in other languages. Mark also seemed to address non-Hebrew audiences because he had to explain Jewish customs (Mark 7:3,4,7), and he translated Aramaic phrases into Greek ("boanerges" Mark 3:17; "talitha kum" Mark 5:41; "ephatha" Mark 7:34; "abba" Mark 14:36; "Golgotha" Mark 15:22; and "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani" Mark 15:34).
The New Testament is a compilation of many scriptures that seem to have been originally written in several different languages, which include Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
List of the most important questions with answers and information about YaH (God), Yehoshua (Jesus 'The Christ'), The Holy Spirit and The Holy Bible.
The Holy Bible chapter and verse references of the scriptures and gospels are quotes from:
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