Is There Any Evidence that the New Testament was Originally Written in Greek?

[eclipseEventSigns]

What evidence is there that the New Testament text was originally written in the Greek language?

That probably seems like a ridiculous question. Of course it was written originally in Greek. Everyone knows that. OK. But exactly HOW do we know that?

When I went to seminary, my expert professors stated this as fact - as a given - and then quickly moved on to talk about textual criticism and how to compare the thousands of existing Greek manuscripts. They appealed to Church tradition where we are all taught that the Greek manuscripts reflect the original words of the authors.

Now, one could bring up the evidence of P52 - a snippet of the Gospel of John. Experts consider it from around 150 AD. But this scrap has no date recorded on it. There's actually nothing "saying" how old it is. It is purely the conjecture of experts. But everyone agrees it is not from the first century. There is actually no discovered New Testament manuscript from the first century.

Then, one could bring up the historical evidence of which languages were spoken in the area of the middle east. To be charitable, there are many opinions and it is disputed which was the main language of the Jewish homeland and throughout the diaspora. Some insist it was Greek because that was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. Others insist it was Aramaic as that was the lingua franca of the Parthian empire to the east and had been for the Jews for centuries since the time of the Babylonian captivity and earlier. But no one considers Latin even though that was the official language of the Romans. So there is no incontrovertible proof here either.

Whatever evidence is proposed, it must also take into account the statements by the historian Josephus. In several places in his works he states that the Greek language was a problem for the Jewish population. The religious leaders actively discouraged anyone to learn Greek. Josephus himself had problems learning Greek and even pronouncing the language. Josephus had to function as a translator between the Romans and the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem during the siege of 70 AD because no one knew Greek in the city. These and other statements need to be taken into account.

So we need to go back to first principles. What exactly is the evidence for this, one of the most basic assumptions of where the New Testament text came from? For all we know, a bunch of aliens in Antarctica wrote the New Testament in the first century in their own language. Then in 149 AD, they translated it into Greek and P52 came into existence. How would you prove that (ridiculous and obviously incorrect) statement wrong?

 

[Josheb]

What evidence is there that the New Testament text was originally written in the Greek language?

1) Thousands of manuscripts written in Greek and zero in another language. 2) Problems with the correctness of the Greek in which the manuscripts are written that could be explained by scribal differences but more likely due to differences in the Jewish authros.

That probably seems like a ridiculous question. Of course it was written originally in Greek. Everyone knows that.

I'm not sure that is true or correct. There is some evidence Matthew's gospel, not Mark's, was written first and written in Aramaic. It was then translated into Greek (supposedly) in an effort to maintain consistency with the gospel of Mark. The evidence is the Greek used in the manuscripts of Matthew. The eccentricities therein are the kind that would occur if someone was translating from Aramaic to Greek rather than writing in Greek as an original language or a translation from Hebrew to Greek (or any other language to Greek). Although it is generally accepted the NT was written in Greek the Aramaic origin of Matthew was/is accepted by notable textual critics/biblical scholars like Metzger and Bruce. A similar, but different, problem occurs in John's writing. The koine Greek is so bad it appears John was not very good at Greek, something akin to someone learning the language and not yet having prowess (like me speaking French after several years of study followed by a couple of decades of neglect ).


Just saying

OK. But exactly HOW do we know that?

I'm all eyes and interest .

When I went to seminary, my expert professors stated this as fact - as a given - and then quickly moved on to talk about textual criticism and how to compare the thousands of existing Greek manuscripts. They appealed...................

So we need to go back to first principles. What exactly is the evidence for this, one of the most basic assumptions of where the New Testament text came from?

I wish I'd read at least some modicum of that evidence in the opening post and not wasted my time reading a post that asks a question but nowhere answers it.

For all we know, a bunch of aliens in Antarctica wrote the New Testament in the first century in their own language. Then in 149 AD, they translated it into Greek and P52 came into existence. How would you prove that (ridiculous and obviously incorrect) statement wrong?

I do hope something better than that rhetoric is available, like maybe the cultural and linguistic background of the NT era, the use of Koine Greek rather than classical or Attic alternatives, alternative language manuscript eccentricities, the absence of alternatives, or any number of explanations I might find with a five-second Google search.


Tell us what you know. Provide us with recommended resources so those inclined to do so can continue the study on their own.

 

[ChristB4us]

What evidence is there that the New Testament text was originally written in the Greek language?

That probably seems like a ridiculous question. Of course it was written originally in Greek. Everyone knows that. OK. But exactly HOW do we know that?

When I went to seminary, my expert professors stated this as fact - as a given - and then quickly moved on to talk about textual criticism and how to compare the thousands of existing Greek manuscripts. They appealed to Church tradition where we are all taught that the Greek manuscripts reflect the original words of the authors.

Now, one could bring up the evidence of P52 - a snippet of the Gospel of John. Experts consider it from around 150 AD. But this scrap has no date recorded on it. There's actually nothing "saying" how old it is. It is purely the conjecture of experts. But everyone agrees it is not from the first century. There is actually no discovered New Testament manuscript from the first century.

Then, one could bring up the historical evidence of which languages were spoken in the area of the middle east. To be charitable, there are many opinions and it is disputed which was the main language of the Jewish homeland and throughout the diaspora. Some insist it was Greek because that was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. Others insist it was Aramaic as that was the lingua franca of the Parthian empire to the east and had been for the Jews for centuries since the time of the Babylonian captivity and earlier. But no one considers Latin even though that was the official language of the Romans. So there is no incontrovertible proof here either.

Whatever evidence is proposed, it must also take into account the statements by the historian Josephus. In several places in his works he states that the Greek language was a problem for the Jewish population. The religious leaders actively discouraged anyone to learn Greek. Josephus himself had problems learning Greek and even pronouncing the language. Josephus had to function as a translator between the Romans and the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem during the siege of 70 AD because no one knew Greek in the city. These and other statements need to be taken into account.

So we need to go back to first principles. What exactly is the evidence for this, one of the most basic assumptions of where the New Testament text came from? For all we know, a bunch of aliens in Antarctica wrote the New Testament in the first century in their own language. Then in 149 AD, they translated it into Greek and P52 came into existence. How would you prove that (ridiculous and obviously incorrect) statement wrong?

Maybe by how the Coptic Bible was translated from?

The Bible in Coptic

"Christianity reached Egypt in the times of the Apostles and, according to tradition, St. Mark himself brought Christianity to the Egyptians about the middle of the first century. The Coptic language, which is the last stage of the Egyptian language, and whose alphabet was mostly derived from the Greek alphabet in the second century BCE, was one of the first languages to translate the New Testament and then the entire Bible as early as the second and third centuries respectively. While the Scriptures were translated into various dialects of Coptic (Akhmimic, Lycopolitan, Mesokemic, Fayyumic, Sahidic, and Bohairic) the most lasting and widely spread Coptic versions of the Bible were written in Sahidic and Bohairic. " quoted from the link

Maybe by how other scripture was translated from, may give the impression of the atmosphere that the Greek was a common language among the Roman Empire as you mentioned earlier.

Hebrew Voices #108 – My Search for Hebrew New Testament Manuscripts At this link is a scholar in search of the manuscripts written in Hebrew but unfortunately, there is no closed captions for me to follow in that video provided and so I cannot share any relevant info.

If you can follow it without Closed captions ( I am hard of hearing ) and interested in it, do feel free to share please,

 

[eclipseEventSigns]

Maybe by how the Coptic Bible was translated from?

The Bible in Coptic

"Christianity reached Egypt in the times of the Apostles and, according to tradition, St. Mark himself brought Christianity to the Egyptians about the middle of the first century. The Coptic language, which is the last stage of the Egyptian language, and whose alphabet was mostly derived from the Greek alphabet in the second century BCE, was one of the first languages to translate the New Testament and then the entire Bible as early as the second and third centuries respectively. While the Scriptures were translated into various dialects of Coptic (Akhmimic, Lycopolitan, Mesokemic, Fayyumic, Sahidic, and Bohairic) the most lasting and widely spread Coptic versions of the Bible were written in Sahidic and Bohairic. " quoted from the link

Maybe by how other scripture was translated from, may give the impression of the atmosphere that the Greek was a common language among the Roman Empire as you mentioned earlier.

Hebrew Voices #108 – My Search for Hebrew New Testament Manuscripts At this link is a scholar in search of the manuscripts written in Hebrew but unfortunately, there is no closed captions for me to follow in that video provided and so I cannot share any relevant info.

If you can follow it without Closed captions ( I am hard of hearing ) and interested in it, do feel free to share please,

Yes, in recent years there has been someone who has found various New Testament manuscripts that are in Hebrew. His claim is that this is the original form of the text. After examining the translations into English and comparing with the Greek and Aramaic, this Hebrew text shows clear evidence that it was translated from the Greek. It has the same problem areas that are present in the Greek text. In addition, none of these Hebrew manuscripts are earlier than 1000 AD.

 

[ChristB4us]

Yes, in recent years there has been someone who has found various New Testament manuscripts that are in Hebrew. His claim is that this is the original form of the text. After examining the translations into English and comparing with the Greek and Aramaic, this Hebrew text shows clear evidence that it was translated from the Greek. It has the same problem areas that are present in the Greek text. In addition, none of these Hebrew manuscripts are earlier than 1000 AD.

Thanks for relaying that information from the video for me.

 

[eclipseEventSigns]

Thanks for relaying that information from the video for me.

To be clear, I did not watch the video. This is from research I've done in the past.

 

[ChristB4us]

To be clear, I did not watch the video. This is from research I've done in the past.

Okay. Thanks.

 

[EarlyActs]

What evidence is there that the New Testament text was originally written in the Greek language?

That probably seems like a ridiculous question. Of course it was written originally in Greek. Everyone knows that. OK. But exactly HOW do we know that?

When I went to seminary, my expert professors stated this as fact - as a given - and then quickly moved on to talk about textual criticism and how to compare the thousands of existing Greek manuscripts. They appealed to Church tradition where we are all taught that the Greek manuscripts reflect the original words of the authors.

Now, one could bring up the evidence of P52 - a snippet of the Gospel of John. Experts consider it from around 150 AD. But this scrap has no date recorded on it. There's actually nothing "saying" how old it is. It is purely the conjecture of experts. But everyone agrees it is not from the first century. There is actually no discovered New Testament manuscript from the first century.

Then, one could bring up the historical evidence of which languages were spoken in the area of the middle east. To be charitable, there are many opinions and it is disputed which was the main language of the Jewish homeland and throughout the diaspora. Some insist it was Greek because that was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. Others insist it was Aramaic as that was the lingua franca of the Parthian empire to the east and had been for the Jews for centuries since the time of the Babylonian captivity and earlier. But no one considers Latin even though that was the official language of the Romans. So there is no incontrovertible proof here either.

Whatever evidence is proposed, it must also take into account the statements by the historian Josephus. In several places in his works he states that the Greek language was a problem for the Jewish population. The religious leaders actively discouraged anyone to learn Greek. Josephus himself had problems learning Greek and even pronouncing the language. Josephus had to function as a translator between the Romans and the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem during the siege of 70 AD because no one knew Greek in the city. These and other statements need to be taken into account.

So we need to go back to first principles. What exactly is the evidence for this, one of the most basic assumptions of where the New Testament text came from? For all we know, a bunch of aliens in Antarctica wrote the New Testament in the first century in their own language. Then in 149 AD, they translated it into Greek and P52 came into existence. How would you prove that (ridiculous and obviously incorrect) statement wrong?

One of the 4D evidences is in Romans 16. Tertius reports that he is writing it out. Greek was the universal language of the Roman period. I know of no records from the time for documents to be used in the empire that were written in anything but Greek. In a book on slavery from the BC period, those slaves in the Roman world who could write Greek had special treatment; they were considered the family computer.

 

[eclipseEventSigns]

Plenty of evidence you are not aware of, it seems.