Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-08-03
The Language of Christ.
by PHILLIP sCHAFF, b. D,

dFeeK or Hebrew! ! or both2 and in
what proportion? As the Son of man
and Saviour Of the world, he was above
the limitations of race nationality. and
language. lie was absolutely perfect
the model for universal imitation
Nevertheless he was a historical per.
son, and, as such, had a we'll defined in.
dlviduality lie was a son of David
and Abraham, born and raised in
Palestine, and could not have been
born anywhere else, either in China,
or in Italy, or in Greece, or among the
savages in Germany or England, where
no preparation was made for his recep.
ton and appreciation and where the
seed OF the divine word would have fall.
len on ice. lie was Jew of the Jews,
mad Jewish physiognomy, dressed ate,
spake, and lived like his countrymen.
How could he have been understoodSy
them If he had not addressed them in
their tongue? What then was this
tongue?
lie wrote nothing. lie is himself the
Book OF Life to be read by all men. lie
stamped his image upon the worlds
history and upon every human heart
and life that yields itself to his trans.
forming and sanctifying influence. But
some OF his disciples wrote books-the
New Testament. And they all wrose
Greek. Only one of them, Matthew, it
said to have written his Gospel first in
Hebrew, and then in Greek. Even
James, the brother of the Lord, who
spent all his public life in Jerusalem, as
far as he know, addressed his epistle
to the twelve tribes of lsreal in the
Greek language.
Did, then, our Saviour likewise speak
Greek? There is something pleasing in
the idea. There never was a nobler
richer, more flexible language spoken
or written, than the language of Honor,
OF Plato, of Sophocles, of Aristotle, and
all those immortal poets, philosophers,
and historians, whose works are TO this
day studied as models of style all over
! the civilized world. And the noblest OF
all uses to which it was put is this
that 1t became the organ for the ever
lasting truth OF our religion, the silver
picture for the golden apple of the Cos.
| pei. Inc Greek was the language of
clvi llzatlon, and of international inter
course. Since the conquests of Alexan-
der the Great who carried the Greek
into the Orient, and still more since the
| conquests of Ro-re, which united all
the nations from the banks Of the
Euphrates and the Nile to the banks of
the Rhine and the shores of the Allan.
| tic, the Greek had become the cosmo.
politan language, as the French was on
the continent in the last century, and
as the English is now in the British
| colonies and in North America. This
was one OF the providential preparations
for the Introduction and spread of
| Christianity.
The Greek penetrated into Palestine
two or three hundred years before
Christ. This is evident from the numer-
Gus Greek names of Jews, and of places
of Palestine, from coins and iuscrp-
tions, from the Greek version of the Old
| Testament which was used by the
Apostles and Evangelists, from the large
number OF Greek speaking Jews, called
"Hellenists," from the writings of Philo
and Josephus, who wrote in Greek, and
from the New Testament itself For it
need not be supposed that the sacred
writer's learned the Greek language
miraculously on the day of pentecost.
| they had abundant opportunity to
learn 1t naturally in their youth, on the
street and common intercourse with
their tellow.men, especially in Galilee,
their native province, which was full Of
Greek speaking Gentiles.
From all these facts we may safely
infer that our Lord, too, knew the
Greek language, not indeed from books,
nor from school, but from ordinary in.
tercourse. Why should he have been
Of lan Il
known to his disciples, the unlettered
fishermen OF Galilee e?
We have no doubt that he used the
Greek language when speaking with
strangers, and with heathens, with such
persons as the Syrophenician woman,
the beathen centurion, the Greeks"
who called on him shortly before the
passion, and King Herod and Pontius
Pilot. Fora Roman governor appointed
for a short time would hardly learn
Hebrew, and no interpreter is men.
toned.
But we cannot agree with those schol.
ars who maintain that Christ used the
Greek language exclusively or even
chiefly. We must distinguish between
the common every. day language OF the
people, and the occasional language
of the higher classes, and of business
men. Palestine was at the time of
Christ bilingual country, like the
frontier countries on the continent
(Alsace, Lorraine, Posen, some cantons
of Switzerland,) or like Wales in Eng.
land, or Eastern Canada, or the German
counties of Pennsylvania. The popu.
lar language was the Hebrew, or rather |
the Aramaic, cognate dialect which |
supplanted the Hebrew after the Baby
lonian exile. In this, their native
tongue, our Saviour would address the
people,
We have the positive proof of that
in several words which have been pre-.
served to us in the Gospel of Mark,
which is the faithful echo of the origi.
nal impression of st. Peter When our
Saviour was to call the daughter of
Jairus back to life, he addressed her in