Given an understable and familiar name or version of a name simply made things simpler for the non-Jews. In English, we do it all the time and never even think of it - Germans are not Germans, they are really Deutschlanders. Greeks aren’t Greeks, they are Ellenoi. If we were to say this is my friend Yanni, he is a Hellene, there would be a good deal of head scratching - what is that name, and what the hell is a Hellene? Someone from hell? Say instead this is my friend Johnny from Greece, it would seem perfectly understandable. (Although Yanni might have a problem pronouncing "Johnny’). Look at it another way - after a few centuries of Christianity, Italians, Germans and others started getting names like Joshua and David. And, yes, as a matter of fact they were Roman - Roman subjects, except for the citizen Paul. The Romans had no problem with using Greek. Greek was such a common tongue that it was probably more widely spoken than say, Spanish is in the southwestern US. A lot of people argue that when Pilate spoke to Jesus, they both probably used common (Koine) Greek.
How do you know? The gospels say nothing about his life between the ages of 12 and 30.
Thanks for the list. Most interesting.
I still would like to know what language Peter spoke as a pope…
Right - but that also proves my point. The New Testament specificaly notes that Jesuskept company with tax collecters, lepers, prostitutes; would it not aso have mentioned that he walked with foreigners and pagans?
There is, I read in the paper a few months back, a Japanese sect which teaches that he visited Japan…
I doubt he would, and I doubt he did. Remember, pointed out that any disciples of his with Greek names were just, as we find during that time period, Jews with Greek names. I’m just saying that it’s not impossible that Jesus would have had contact with a Greek. It’s more likely for him to have seen a Greek than for him to have seen a Chinese or a Cherokee, for example.
Jesus specifically says to take the Gospel to the Gentiles (Matt.28:19-20; Luke 24:47; John 10:16) and stated flatly that non-Jews would be found in the Kingdom of God (Matt.8:11-12; John17:20).
He is explicit and it is not unclear. But I will cop to having no real explanation for:
Mt 10: 5: *These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. *
I would be very surprised if Jesus never had contact with Greeks - he certainly met Romans at the end of his life. Anyway though, it is not accurate to say he only went among Jews in Jewish places. In Matthew 15:21-28 at least, he also went to Tyre and Sidon which were not technically “jewish” and is in fact where he meets the Canaanite mother - who is clearly not a Jew and Jesus heals her kid.
Here’s a link from as biased a source as anyone could ever find – (There is preachin’ in it)-- but it adds some possible contextual explanations.
http://www.sacredspace.ie/livingspace/SundayArchive/A-20.htm
Actually, Jesus, along with the forgotten apostle, Biff, did quite a bit of traveling during that time. He even pioneered Jew-jitsu as a less combative form of kung-fu.
The reason for the apparent discrepancy is in the timing. During Jesus’ ministry he instructed the apostles to preach only to the Jews, since they were the “chosen people” and were to be taught first.
After Christ’s crucifiction and resurrection, Peter was told in a vision to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. That marks the point where they began travelling outside of Judea to teach other nations.
Paul may have considered himself an apostle. There is much evidence that Jesus’ original disciples did not. Besides the hints remaining in the New Testament of the feud between Paul and James, the brother of Jesus and his successor as leader, there are the passages in the Clementine Recognitions /Homilies (much of which date from the early 2nd century) which disparage the witness of those who claim to have seen Jesus in dreams and visions as opposed to knowing the man himself. The destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus in AD70 proved devastating for the original Judaist disciples of Christ and left the way clear for Pauline Christianity.
Well, since that area was part of the Roman Empire, I suppose one could say that Jesus & his Apostles were all “Roman”. However, as spingears pointed out, Paul/Saul was the only one we know of to be a Roman Citizen as opposed to Subject (and it certainly debateable whether or not Paul should be called an “Apostle.”). However, Matthew was a Tax Collector/Publicani, so it isn’t impossible he was a Citizen also… doubful, however.
On the other hand, there were plenty of Greeks (actually, mostly dudes of Greek decent) and Romans (Jesus healed the servant of a Centurion once) around. Tarsus (where Saul was born) considered itself to be a “greek” city. There were also two “group” of Jews at that time “Greeks” and “Hebrews” based upon what language they commonly spoke. (Acts 6:1)- but it is worth pointing out that none of the “Twelve” were of the “Greek” faction. That being said, since many of the Greek faction used Greek names, it is not impossible that one of the Twelve used a Greek name, even though he wasn’t of that “faction”.
Gee, someone should write a book about that . . .
Quite true. Greek was the international language of choice for most of the Roman Empire. Roman administrators east of Italy used koine Greek as the language of administration, and it was the language of business. Latin would be spoken in the western part of the Empire, but in the East, the only reason to learn Latin would be if you were joining the legions (or the auxiliaries) - Latin was the language in which military commands were given.
What language Jesus and his disciples actually spoke is probably impossible to determine. I’m guessing most of them knew at least some koine Greek – at least enough to sell their fish to the imperially-sponsored processing plants. After all, Galilee had been called “Galilee of the Gentiles” since the time of Isaiah. A few decades later, Josephus (who had been a Jewish commander in Galilee at the time of the revolt against Rome) wrote volumes in Greek; and a few decades later still, at the time of the Bar Kochba revolt, there’s a surviving letter from one of the Jewish encampments which notes “I am writing this letter in Greek, because nobody in the camp writes Hebrew.” And this, in a nationalistic, Messianic army. There’s also a surviving fragment - in Greek - of a warning inscription which in the time of Jesus was posted on the Temple.
So, Jesus and his disciples almost certainly met Greek-speaking people with some frequency. If he did not speak koine Greek well enough to get along in conversation, then we’d have to assume that the conversations with the centurion whose servant he healed, and with Pilate, were either carried out in Aramaic (and I can’t think why either of these gentlemen would have learned Aramaic) or else an unmentioned interpreter was involved. I think it’s more likely that many Galileans were bilingual.
I love that book.
Definately Jewish. My theology teacher has been studying Judaism and Christianity for about forty years now and has repeated that Jesus’s followers were both Hebrew and of the Jewish faith, to our knowledge. The other religions prevalent at that time were NOT monotheistic (one God). It would be a HUGE jump to go from worshipping multiple gods that involved sacrifices and sexual rituals, to a monotheistic religion that is VERY strict about sex. I’m sure this has happened to other characters in the bible, but none of the apostles were included.
Yet thousands upon thousands of pagans did go from worshipping multiple gods to monotheistic Christianity. (P.S. Judaism of that era also involved sacrifices.)
Almost certainly.
But the centurion whose servant Jesus healed may have been one of the “God-fearers” - non-ethnic Jews who worshipped Yahweh, but were not circumcized and did not keep kosher. The elders who recommended the centurion to Jesus for healing mentioned that the centurion had built their synagogue for them. Thus he (the centurion) apparently had extensive links to Jewish culture and daily life - possibly even including speaking Hebrew or Aramaic, even if he hadn’t already learned it well enough to interact with the locals.
Possibly the same with Pilate, who may have had to pick up the language well enough to serve as governor. But being able to interact with people in differing languages was not uncommon in the era - even the notice “King of the Jews” over Jesus’ head when he was crucified was written in multiple languages.
Regards,
Shodan
The twelve disciples were Israilites, Hebrews, and Jewish by race. Their names as recorded in the N.T. are anglicized versions of those names. They were living in the areas of present day Palestine, under the rule of Rome at the time.
Paul was a Roman Citizen, although not a roman but an Israeling, Hebrew, and a Jew by birth and by race.
Yes, the centurion is certainly described as having close enough links to the Jewish community that he might have learned Aramaic. I’m inclined to think he was more likely to communicate with the Jewish community in Greek, though that’s mostly a guess. I still haven’t found enough evidence to satisfy me regarding who spoke what, but it seems clear that rather a lot of ordinary people had at least some limited fluency in koine Greek; whereas Aramaic doesn’t seem to have been functioning as a trade language within the eastern Empire at this time.
I’d be very surprised if Pilate spoke Aramaic, or, indeed, made any other efforts to understand Judea. This was the governor who marched into Jerusalem with the (idolatrous) Roman eagle standards prominently displayed, and precipitated a riot…