Inspired by a (possibly apocryphal) comment I read on-line, to the effect that “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us!” (Fundie Christian explaining why he didn’t want his kids learning “Foreign” Languages, and totally overlooking the fact that the Bible, in English, is merely a translation of texts originally written in now long-dead languages).
Anyway, this got me thinking. Let’s pretend for a moment (as we so often do, with reality being such a disappointment these days) that you’ve acquired a Time Machine. Having tweaked your flux capacitor and reconfigured the engine to run on Olive Oil (petrol not being something the Romans were noted for having in abundance), you’ve arrived in Jerusalem c.30 AD, and are listening to a man- obviously held in reverence by some of the listeners- addressing the crowd in Aramaic and Latin. Your Universal Translator tells you that the man is relating some parables, and your HistorID Computer tells you that you are, in fact, listening to Jesus Christ- The Man Himself, in other words.
Anyway, after He’s stepped off the Roman equivalent of a Soapbox, you go up to Him and greet Him.
Now, as the Son Of God and therefore Divine, would Jesus be able to understand you if you greeted Him with something like “Hello, Jesus! I’m a big fan of your work… especially the whole thing with the water and the wine, and the loaves and the fishes. Listen, I’ve got something to tell you, and it’s important, but it might be a little hard to grasp at first… What are you doing for dinner this evening?” would He be able to understand you (and if so, would He be able to converse with you in Modern English?), or would He simply pat you on the shoulder in a reassuring yet “There, there, My Son” way and head off to whatever it was He was planning on doing next?
You’re going to get 1 of two answers, and those answers will be determined solely by one thing:
Does that person believe Jesus was the son of god or not.
I don’t, so I’ll tell you my obvious answer: Of course not. Modern english was a good 1500 years away. Unless you spoke Aramaic or perhaps some greek he would not have understood you.
Even orthodox (small o) Christians believe that Jesus was human. Hence, he wasn’t born with any more knowledge than any other baby. He had to LEARN to walk and speak, like any other child. He had to LEARN to read and write, like any other child. Whatever languages he spoke, presumably he learned them the hard, old-fashioned way.
Even those of us who believe in the divinity of Jesus don’t necessarily believe he knew everything. We believe that God revealed certain vitally important things to him. But, to use a few examples I’ve used before…
Did Jesus know tha e = mc squared? Almost certainly not.
Did he know that America existed? Almost certainly not.
Did he know how to speak Chinese or Sanskrit? Again, almost certainly not.
Did Jesus know that the Earth revolved around the sun? I’m guessing not.
From time to time, Jesus discovered that he had all sorts of powers and all sorts of knowledge that he couldn’t explain… but for the most part, even Christians wouldn’t expect him to know most things that were not widely known by educated people of his time and place.
So, to use your time machine question… I do believe Jesus was divine, but I’m guessing Jesus would NOT have understood you if you spoke to him in modern English.
If he could understand some of the Government press releases and assorted PR publications that are “rolled out” here, then it would indeed be a miracle.
I’m reminded of the elderly and opinionated dowager who is alleged to have said, “English, when spoken slowly and distinctly, should be understandable to anyone.”
Yes, a miracle. Not a permanent gift. I agree with other posters that Jesus wouldn’t necessarily be able to understand the OP. Jesus didn’t have “permanent super-powers” (or else he wouldn’t have been fully human). But most certainly he could have if he wanted to. Something like : “What is this dude saying? Let’s miraculously translate it”.
Though on the other hand : did he have, on a permanent basis, the gift of prophecy (It seems to me it’s the closest thing to the gift of tongues that he demonstrates)? Could he be mistaken? (like in “didn’t He say that it was going to be a sunny day? I should have brought my umbrella instead of listening to Him”)
Most English vocabulary (and all of its grammatical structure) derives from Old English, which derives from the speech of Saxon or proto-Saxon tribes who, in Jesus’ day, would have been living in German forests outside the Empire.
And I very much doubt Jesus knew any Latin. In his time, Judaea and Galilee had not been under Roman rule very long. If he got any non-religious education, he might have spoken Greek, which had been the language of wider communication in the Eastern Mediterranean for centuries and would remain so for centuries more. We can be quite certain Pontius Pilate would have spoken Greek fluently, all upper-class Romans did. The Sadducees almost certainly spoke it too, and the royal Herods.
And if Jesus really did spend his childhood in Egypt, he would have had to speak Greek just to talk to the Jews there, who spoke no other language. (Which is why the OT was translated into Greek for their use – the Septuagint. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint)
Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic, and knew Hebrew and probably Greek. He did not ever learn modern English. If he wanted to, he could miraculously understand and speak to you, but it would be… well, a miracle.
Of course, to this day, hundreds of millions of people talk to Jesus in hundreds of languages confident that He understands what they are saying…
