What Language Did Jesus Speak? (Answered!)

Though it’s impossible to be completely certain, the scholarly consensus is that Jesus would have spoken Aramaic. He lived in Nazareth, in Judea, and the common language spoken in this area and these communities was Aramaic. Many argue that he likely knew other languages such as Hebrew and Greek, but this is tough to prove.

Jesus as a historical figure is naturally very different from the Jesus of the Bible.

There are only a handful of things that we can say for sure about the historicity of Jesus, and even these things are often hotly contested among scholars.

Let’s dive into that debate.

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What language did the historical Jesus speak?

The best guess we can make about the language Jesus spoke is that it was probably Aramaic.

This was the language of the region he lived during the first century AD, and would have been the language spoken by his parents and neighbors.

There were many languages spoken in the area at the time, but Aramaic was certainly the dominant language of the particular region and ethnicity into which Jesus was most likely born.

Of course, this question is based on a great many assumptions.

There is more or less unanimous agreement that Jesus was a historical figure and did indeed really exist.

But you still get into disagreements about precisely where he might have lived, or among which ethnic group.

Again, it is most widely agreed that he was indeed a Nazarene and a Judean.

In this case, he would almost certainly have spoken Aramaic as his first language.

The point is that we cannot reach back to any direct, first-hand account of Jesus speaking to someone which is universally agreed to be a genuine event.

We have roughly contemporary historical accounts from historians and even from people who purportedly met him, but few of them mention the language he spoke.

Jesus spent most of his time in Nazareth and Capernaum, in Galilee, both of which were Aramaic-speaking communities.

At the very least, then, we can say with all but certainty that Jesus knew Aramaic.

Aramaic itself was spoken over a wide enough area that there was dialectal variation, and he probably spoke a Galilean variant of Aramaic.

Aramaic remained an important language of the region for centuries after Jesus’s death and had been for centuries before he was born.

This covers the historical Jesus, then—what about the Jesus of the Bible?

What language did Jesus speak in the Bible?

Naturally, the Bible has been translated many times since its constituent books were first written.

Originally, the books of the Bible were written in three main languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek.

The Gospels, recording the life and deeds of Jesus, are primarily agreed to have been written in Greek.

These Greek books are thought to have been based on an Aramaic source.

So, originally, the Bible probably recorded Jesus’s words in Greek.

Contemporaries of Jesus, many of whom are the supposed authors of the original books of the Bible, would have written in Aramaic for the most part.

The simple answer, then, is that Jesus spoke Aramaic “in the Bible”—but of course, his words have been translated into virtually every language on Earth.

How many languages did Jesus speak?

While we again cannot say for certain, it’s supposed that Jesus would likely have had a working knowledge of at least two other languages besides Aramaic: Greek and Hebrew.

Hebrew for the most part remained the language of rite and scholarship in Jesus’s time, despite the spoken dominance of Aramaic in that region.

So, Jesus would likely have had some knowledge of the language for the religious purposes of teaching.

Greek, as mentioned, was the other major language of the region at the time.

Koine Greek, specifically, was the form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period.

Jesus likely knew this language well enough to converse with outsiders who were not from Judea.

Naturally, we can’t be sure of any of this.

While these are of course safe assumptions based on centuries of scholarly research, effort, and writing, we have no direct, reliable account of whether Jesus knew many languages.

Given his fame and preaching ability, it’s likely to assume he would have needed Greek and Hebrew at least.

Is Aramaic the same as Hebrew?

Aramaic is not the same as Hebrew, although they are both Semitic languages.

They are from the same family and would have shared many similarities, but they would not have been mutually intelligible.

Indeed, as mentioned, there were even multiple different forms of Aramaic which, in some cases, would not have been mutually intelligible.

Aramaic would have arisen out of Hebrew, in all likelihood.

Though old Hebrew continued to be spoken in many places after the advent of Aramaic,

Aramaic came to be the dominant language of large parts of the Semitic-speaking world of which Jesus was a part.

So, Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic as his first language.

He may well have known other languages and used them proficiently, but it’s very difficult to be certain of this.

Indeed, it’s very difficult to be completely certain of anything when it comes to the life of Jesus.

Nevertheless, we can be quite sure that he would have spoken Aramaic since this was the language of the region in which he was born, raised, and lived most of if not all of his life.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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