EclipseEventSigns
Well-known member
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?
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?
