The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-23, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 51."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

Answer

Well, it’s likely that Jesus, when He lived on earth, spoke Aramaic. It was the common language of the people. And sometimes in the New Testament you have Aramaic names or you have a quote--some Aramaic that’s translated for us; it’s even translated by the writer of Scripture. But, that’s irrelevant!

What is relevant is that when inspired the Bible, He inspired it in Hebrew--the Old Testament--with a few sections which are in Aramaic and He inspired the New Testament in Greek. That is to say, when Matthew wrote Matthew, he wrote it in Greek. When Mark wrote Mark, he wrote it in Greek. When Luke wrote Luke, he wrote it in Greek. When John wrote John, he wrote it in Greek. When Luke wrote Acts, he wrote it in Greek. And then when Paul and Peter and John and James wrote their epistles, they wrote them in Greek. And when John wrote the Revelation, he wrote it in Greek. All the manuscripts going all the way back affirm and attest to the fact that they were all written in Greek. That is to say, the inspired text of Scripture, when God inspired it, in the original autographs, was given in the Greek language! Not in Aramaic, though Aramaic was the common street language--the common language of the day of Jesus, very likely spoken by the Jewish people in Israel.

That is not the language that God chose, obviously, because He felt that Greek was a more expansive language with more nuances. For the theological clarification the New Testament demanded, God chose the language of Greek. To say that we should reject the Scripture in favor of some Aramaic record of Jesus is tantamount to denying the Bible’s inspiration! It’s a serious issue. It doesn’t matter what language a given conversation might have been in. I’m sure when the apostle Paul in the book of Acts was having a conversation with Agrippa or with Felix or when he was talking to Roman soldiers, there might have been different languages used. When he got to Rome and when he was a prisoner in Roman jails, they weren’t talking Aramaic.

It’s immaterial what the language being spoken was; what is material is that when God inspired the writers to write, they wrote in the Greek language, the New Testament. And to say that the true record of Jesus is some lost Aramaic manuscript or something is, in fact, to deny the Scripture, the inspiration.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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