Jesus didn't speak English.

i know it's 6am, and i woke up a few hours ago, and my intention was to start a very early day of study since i spent most of yesterday catching up on sleep.  but instead of studying, as i know i probably really should have been doing, i spent the last few hours researching on a question which suddenly popped into my head as i was reading through John's Gospel:

What language(s) did Jesus speak?



and perhaps more importantly, what significant implications would that have for His people who are reading His Word 2009 years after He walked and spoke on earth?  firstly, i pointed out that these are Jesus' spoken words "on earth" because the entire Bible is the Word of Jesus and Jesus Himself is the Word Incarnate.  therefore, Hebrew is the language of Jesus in the Old Testament, and so my question is asking about the spoken language of Jesus in the New Testament when He walked on earth.  secondly, like it's not obvious enough, i want to reiterate that Jesus didn't speak English, and is not an Anglo-Saxon-Caucasion-looking kinda man with porcelain white skin and flowing golden locks, taller, fairer and "prettier" than all His disciples, like you see in many pictorial depictions of him rendered under the influence of Western art.  He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Jewish man who lived in Galilee of the Roman Empire and would've probably looked similar to a modern-day Israeli Arab with dark olive skin, dark brown hair, and a rugged carpenter-in-a-small-country-town kinda look.  now, this begs the question: what language(s) did He speak?  was it Hebrew (the original language of the Jews and the Jewish Scriptures), or Aramaic (the language prevalent in the Jewish world at the time of Jesus’ birth), or Greek (the original language of the New Testament and spoken by many Gentiles in the part of the Roman Empire where Jesus lived), or Latin (the official and most widely-spoken language of the Roman Empire)?  and i wanted to type out my findings (and understanding of them) before i forget everything i discovered in the last 3 hours of intensive research about the ancient Roman Empire and its languages in Jesus' time.

Jesus spoke Aramaic.

Aramaic was related to Hebrew much the same as Cantonese is related to Mandarin.  and it's a very sad story how this came to be.  the Jews in the Old Testament spoke Hebrew.  Hebrew is the language in which God spoke to His chosen people throughout the Old Testament, and the language in which God's people spoke to God and to each other.  all this changed when Israel was overthrown, first by the Assyrians (800 BC) and then by the Babylonians (600 BC).  Aramaic was the language spoken by the Aramaeans who lived among the Assyrians and Babylonians.  after the 2 exiles, Aramaic became the "lingua franca" (common language for the purpose of communication between people who speak different languages) between the Jews, Assyrians and Babylonians.  eventually, Aramaic became the common language amongst the Jews themselves, as it was in Jesus' time.  Jesus spoke Aramaic and it was His everyday spoken language.  although the New Testament was written in Greek, at several points the original Aramaic words of Jesus were remembered and passed on by its authors.  Eg. "Talitha cumi" (Mark 5:41 " Little girl, I say to you, arise."); "Abba" (Mark 14:36 "Father"); "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" (Mark 15:34 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").  the prevalance of Aramaic in the Jewish world in the time Jesus was born is significant to our understanding of Biblical theology, and served as a heartbreaking reminder to the Jews in His time.  they surely would have felt a great sense of dislocation when they couldn't understand the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Jewish Old Testament) in the synagogues because they were read in its original Hebew.  an Aramaic translation was necessarily provided.  at this time, while the Jews lived within the physical boundaries of the Promised Land, they were not completely at home.  they could not even understand the language in which their God had once revealed to them His own name.  the words they spoke and their longing hearts were still in exile.  they were waiting for the full restoration God had promised through Abraham, the Hebrew prophets and their forefathers.

Jesus most likely would’ve spoken Hebrew as well.

in Jesus' time, Hebrew was not the everyday spoken language for the Jews, but an extra language to be learnt and studied, much like how speakers of Chinese dialects often undertake to learn Mandarin.  upper class Jews learnt Hebrew as a literary and liturgical language, especially to be used in studying the Scriptures and in the synogogue.  lower class Jews may also have learnt Hebrew so that they could read and understand the Scriptures in its original language.  Jesus most likely would’ve spoken Hebrew as a second language, and there are incidents recorded in the New Testament which suggest this.  Eg. Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day and read from a scroll a section from the prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:16-19); other passages which may indicate that Jesus spoke Hebrew are those in which He engages in theological debates with learned Jewish teachers (Pharisees).  the importance of Jesus being conversant in Hebrew is found in His Hebrew roots, a direct descendent from Abraham, a reader of the Torah (Mosiac Law), whose birth and life and death and resurrection fulfilled all prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures.  His understanding of the Hebrew prophecies would not only have enabled Him to do everything the prophets predicted, but Jesus’ understanding of God’s work in the world, His divine anointing as the Messiah, the necessity of His death and resurrection, and His preaching on the kingdom and authority of God; all this would have come from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible Jesus read.

Jesus most likely would’ve spoken Greek as well.

the official language of the Roman Empire was Latin, but the lingua franca was Greek, since it was already widely spoken in many cities in the east.  Jesus grew up in the multilingual and multicultural province of Galilee in the East Roman Empire, a place of commerce and international trade where Greek was the language of business.  many Greek-speaking Gentiles lived in Galilee, especially in Sepphoris, the capital city and heart of the Galilee province at that time.  Jesus’ hometown was Nazareth (John 1:46), a small country town which was less than 4 miles south of Sepphoris, about an hour’s walk away.  growing up and living in this area, Jesus would have had to speak some Greek, especially when engaging in trade with the Gentiles in Nazareth and Sepphoris.  several times throughout the New Testament gospels Jesus converses with someone who spoke Greek as a primary language, and who may not have known Hebrew or Aramaic.  Eg. the Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5-13); and Pontius Pilate (John 18).  it is unlikely that Jesus knew much Latin, and even more unlikely that the Roman Governor would have been gracious enough to learn the tongue of his subject people (the administrative languages of the Roman bureaucracy were Latin and Greek only).  the importance of Jesus being conversant in Greek helps us to understand what Jesus, as a human, was like when He entered Jerusalem and began His 3-year ministry.  although His hometown was the small country town of Nazareth, He was definitely not far removed from the multicultural Roman metropolis.  Jesus was a carpenter like His father (Mark 6:3) and engaged in trade which would have required speaking some Greek.  He was not an illiterate peasant and did not come from the lowest stratum of Palestinian society.  He was a skilled craftsman with a house in Capernaum (Mark 2:1).  His hometown was only an hour’s walk from the capital city, thus He would have grown up with ample exposure to Greco-Roman languages, culture, commerce, politics, religion and philosophy.  He was not a naïve country boy entering into the big city for the first time to confront Roman and Jewish authorities.  He knew the power and brokenness of the world He had entered to die for the sins of its people and to bring to them God’s kingdom, and He ultimately said to Pontius Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36).

it's been a weird and wonderful month of april!  i'm having another sleepless night, so i thought i'd do a chronological update.  enjoy the photos! v^_^v  but before i do that, i want to say that it's been a really difficult month as well, and i've really been emotionally up & down and up & down, dealing with issues with family, church, TeenSS, friends, uni & simeon.  it has been really difficult, stressful & heartbreaking.  but i want to end off this intro with saying, firstly, I LOVE GOD, because He always holds me in His hands, and secondly, i love simeon, because he ways holds me in his arms.

Saturday 4th April
Sebastian's 21st Birthday Party

 
seb's injured 21st!  neither simeon nor i dressed up as injured... until elsa gave us some bandages! xD  seb&sim are so cute together! <3  hehehe!

Friday 10th April
HAPPY 23 MONTHS, CHOO CHOO!!
couldn't be with you to celebrate because of houseparty!  but it's almost 2 years! <3

Friday 10th - Monday 13th April
TeenSS Houseparty 2009: Holy Spirit


lisa doesn't really wear glasses.


we had 70 people this year!  yay for TeenSS!! v^_^v  we like it a lot.

Saturday 18th April
Paul's 21st Birthday Party


aww i miss you, joannie! =)

Sunday 19th April
Karen Lau's 21st Birthday Party

 
simeon looked so cool!  he was dressed up as an asian dad! xP  and i looked like his daughter... LOL!!  thankyou, choo choo, for another cute little froggie!  karen is one of the most beautiful women i know, and i'm so blessed to have her as a dear sister in Christ.

 
the theme of the party was "asian".  the boys looked so funny and the girls looked so pretty!

Monday 20th April
Easter Show with Simeon & his family

   
i love the easter show, and going with you 2 years in a row is just so wonderful!  the rain made it even more special! =)

 
while it was raining, we sat inside watching a goats beauty pageant.  then we found simeon's eternal enemy: the "cow-mel" (cow with a camel hump) who licked my hand.

 
i found the ugliest duck ever.  offense intended.  then a goat pulled my hair as i was trying to take a happy snap with it.

 
i really wanted to take a photo with a little white lamb, but they all kept running away, except this little white goat who stayed for the longest.  oh, and want a fat black cow?  how about 8 fat black cows?  yummie.  i can't help but imagine them piled on top of each other and served on a gourmet platter.

 
simeon lining up with cheri who begged to go on the scary ride.  i pressed the wrong button on my camera and accidently made the first photo black&white&red but later realised it looked really fittingly scary!  and look how scared cheri was when she got on the ride! xD

 
simeon is stronger than kamen rider Stronger! <3  and here we are, WALL-E & EVE. <3

 
we were so exhausted by the time we got back, and we ate dinner @ thornleigh macca's.  when we got home, we all played with cheri and her barbie showbag! xD

 
i have no idea what happened.

Wednesday 22nd April
Enoch's 15th Birthday & Taming The Tiger

 
it's my little little bro enoch's 15th birthday!  along with his TeenSS & school friends, we watched fast&furious @ BJ westfield.  there were a lot more people than this, but these 3 came to our house afterwards for singstar before going to Taming the Tiger.


we were drenched in the rain when we walked to our cars together after Taming the Tiger.  tony anthony's testimony was so amazing and moving!  all praise to God for saving him, and for saving many others that night! =)

Friday 24th April
Day out with Vanessa & dinner with friends


lunch @ dintaifeng because i was craving for their xiaolongbao.  icecream & waffles @ passionflower.  sticker photos @ capitol.  shopping @ paddy's market & market city.  yay for a day with my vay! xD

 
then i met up with simeon, jeremy, tim, john & bekkie for hotpot @ shan cheng hotpot king.  we had drinks @ easyway.  and here comes the fun: we went from arcade to arcade, spending a fortune (not really) grabbing toys from the toy machines!  check out that very cute white&pink toy that simeon won for me and very much... err... matches me! v^_^v

 
just don't look at it for too long, because you might start questioning WHAT exactly that thing is, and i promise you DON'T want to know.  looking at that photo simeon & i took with it, and remembering the myriad attempts until we got the perfect photo, now makes me giggle and cringe at its hilarious inappropriateness.  but that was BEFORE we realised what it was!  earlier in the day @ market city, i found the cutest pyjamas ever: pink with little green froggies!  and it was on sale!  it was just my day. =)  the red hotpot was the other toy simeon won for me.  he also bought for me the pink domokun and the standing green froggie from morning glory.  the upside-down green froggie i bought for myself from morning glory.  vanessa also bought me a little green froggie phone thingie from morning glory, but it's not in the photo.  and notice that my hairband changed colour!  no, not really.  the pink one actually snapped about 5 minutes before i met up with simeon, so he bought me a new one from... yes, morning glory.  now i understand why 95% of my 21st birthday gifts last year were bought from none other than... morning glory. =)

Saturday 25th April
Jono Chng's 22nd Birthday Party

 
jono had a really strange mix of theme for his party: hello kitty, snoopy & country.  that should explain the strange variety of dress-ups.  and in the photo of us 3 girls, of course joannie had to make sure she was in the middle as always.  you can't really tell from the photos, but i actually did put some effort into dressing up.  my earrings, bracelet, hairtie & skirt are all hello kitty.  i should've also worn my hello kitty shirt, jacket, necklace, ring, hairband & thongs, but i forgot about them.  i should've also taken my hello kitty soft toys, towels, clocks, photo frames, bags, pencil case, torch, lantern, washing basket... so i might as well take my whole bedroom.  perhaps the most suitable place to hold a hello kitty theme party would be in my bedroom.  I LOVE HELLO KITTY!! v^_^v  well, to be precise, i actually love charmmy kitty more than hello kitty, and charmmy kitty is hello kitty's pet kitty.  yes, kitties can have pet kitties.  and not to forget, there's also dear daniel, who is hello kitty's boyfriend/husband.  but i can't love dear daniel because i'm not hello kitty.

Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story - baby just say 'Yes!'

sorry, i really had to let that out of my system! >.<"
my teenss girls are probably thinking i've gone insane but it's THEIR fault!
THEIR fault for playing it over and over again at houseparty and singing it with me when i was trying to stop!
now, back to non-current assets and accumulated depreciation...



teeheehee... *sigh*... whack me please... hard.
HOW OLD ARE YOU, NAOMI?!?! -__-"
AND YOU HAVE AN ACCOUNTING EXAM TOMORROW!!

i did something tonight which surprised even myself.

grandpa's fallen sick.  he's got a fever with a high temperature.  i was really worried about him because i've never seem him like this before.  he's usually so strong and healthy.  even if his limbs are not strong, at least he is not usually sick in this way.  and he was completely fine this morning, but seemed to have gotten more and more sick as the day progressed.  when i went down to say goodnight to him, he was curled up awkwardly on the sofa.  i put my fingers on his rosy cheeks and they were hot to the touch.

simeon and i had taken the bed down for him today (he has always refused to sleep on the bed so we took it back up a while ago).  but i set up the bed, pushed it against the wall so he wouldn't roll off, and pulled him off the sofa and onto the bed.  i made him sleep properly on his back to straighten out his back and sore limbs.  i tucked him in with the blanket.  this whole process took almost half an hour because he was so weak and sick which made every movement very slow and painful for him.  as i maneourved him into position on the bed, he suddenly grabbed his head with both his arms and groaned loudly.  i asked him what was the matter and where he was feeling pain, and he said he was feeling pain all over his body.

i gave him some panadol and made him drink some water.  then i (as a nightly routine) placed eyedrops in his left eye which had recently undergone cataract surgery.  by then, he was almost asleep.  i shook his shoulders gently and told him not to sleep yet.  he asked why.  i took his right hand out from under the blanket and held it to my lips for a kiss.  then i rubbed his hand against my right cheek as i told him i'm going to pray for him.

this is the part where i surprised myself.  everything prior to this point were things i'm very used to doing.  but somehow somewhere along this process tonight, i decided i have to pray for him.  i pray for him and grandma every night.  but tonight, i decided to pray for him in his presence so that he can hear how i have prayed for him every night for the last almost 20 years of my life.  he quietly said "aiya" to tell me i didn't need to.  that was an indicator of consent, because previously it would've been along the lines of "you lunatic!" or "don't even start with the Jesus thing!".  i sighed a breath of relief.

he kept his eyes closed.  after taking a deep breath, i started praying:  "Lord Jesus, grandpa is sick."  and after just those 5 words, i felt all the strength and courage i needed to continue just exploding inside my heart.  it was awkward and i kept repeating the same words because i don't usually pray in cantonese so i don't know cantonese prayer jargon.  but this was a good thing because i had to pray in a really simple way, easier for grandpa to understand.  "grandpa has a fever and a high temperature.  he feels sore all over his body.  please heal him, Jesus.  please give him a really good night's sleep straight to the morning.  please take away the pain from every part of his body, from every bone and muscle, and give him comfort.  please help him to walk and move around easily so that he can comfortably and happily do the things he loves to do.  Lord Jesus, thankyou for giving us grandpa.  thankyou for giving us grandpa who loves us so much.  please help him to realise how much we love him and how much You love him.  Lord Jesus, please fill grandpa's heart with your peace."  i gently placed my left hand on grandpa's heart.  "there are so many terrible things in this world that are out of our control, and people will not only be born, but will fall sick and age and die.  but please help grandpa understand that if he knows Jesus and has Jesus' love in his heart, then it doesn't matter if he is sick or old or even dies.  because even though Jesus died, Jesus also rose again so we will rise again too and have eternal life.  and then we will see all our family and loved ones again and live forever together and never be apart.  i give this prayer to You in the name of my Lord Jesus, amen."

i held grandpa's face and asked if he was listening.  he said yes, even though his eyes were closed.  i kissed him on the cheek and said goodnight.  i switched off the lights and headed up to my bedroom, with a heart full of excitement and anticipation to see God shower down His love and miracles in the days to come.

please join me in praying for God's miracles to transform grandpa and grandma's lives.  grandma has dementia.  i don't know how to tell her who Jesus is, when i have trouble telling her who i am.

it's always when i'm pulling allnighters and studying for exams, when everyday seems too short and busy to do anything, that i start dreaming about things i want to do:

* experience the Spirit's power at TeenSS Houseparty
* learn to play yiruma's Kiss The Rain on piano
* learn to play yiruma's River Flows In You on piano
* save up to buy a decent cello
* get a new phone when my plan expires in february
* see mark driscoll when he comes to sydney later this year
* have photos taken of me surrounded by autumn leaves
* take grandpa to see dinosaur bones
* play basketball in the rain
* ski down the highest peak of perisher blue
* go free-range horse-riding at glenwoth valley
* go on a road trip up to gold coast and visit dreamworld
* go on a short-term overseas mission to qinghai/yunnan
* train with WIRES to become a wildlife rescuer/carer
* go to TAFE and get a certificate IV in makeup artistry
* learn to bake a korean-style fresh cream fruit cake
* get a job at a comic book library
* work with LegalAid to help disadvantaged people