Greek in Church History | Biblical Mastery Academy

Part 1 of 2 in Getting Into New Testament Greek

Jesus spoke Greek.

Not merely as a concession to foreign rule, and not only when Roman administration required it. Greek was the common, public language of first-century Palestine, and by the time Christ started his ministry, it had been for more than 60 years.

As we begin, let’s explore how the language came to be so important in Israel, and how it became so widely used in a nation with its own ancient tongue.

Language and Conquest

Just as the majority of people in the world today speak English, and just as most of those speak English as a second language, so it was in the period of the New Testament, and for much the same basic reasons.

The ancient world was, like today, turbulent. Knowing the language of the great empires was required for diplomacy. During the 8th through 6th centuries BC, the Assyrian and Babylonian empires conquered Israel and Judah, respectively, and carried most of their populations into exile. There, they were forced to assimilate with the locals, which, among other things, meant that the Jewish masses had to learn the local language and customs to fit in and survive. Ten chapters of the Old Testament are in Aramaic because that was the language of the Assyrian and then the Babylonian Empires. When Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah wrote, they used both Hebrew and Aramaic in their everyday language and in their writing, and their intended audience understood both languages.

However, the New Testament is written in Greek and not Hebrew or Aramaic because the events that occurred during the 400 years between the Old and New Testament periods transformed the world. By tracing the history of these ancient events, we can see how the Greek language became the default language of the ancient world, the everyday language in Israel, and ultimately the language of the early church, leaving us a rich heritage in Greek to the modern era.

How the World Changed

The Old Testament canon closed with the writing of Malachi around 433 BC.¹ The return of Jews from Exile in Babylon was well underway after Cyrus conquered Babylon and permitted the Israelites to return home in 538 BC. The temple and Walls in Jerusalem had been rebuilt, and the sacrificial system had been restored. Jerusalem, after being sacked and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, was being rebuilt. It appeared that life was about to return to something akin to the pre-exilic ways. However, the old ways were gone forever. Around a hundred years after Judah returned from exile, a significant development would alter the course of world history.

Macedon, a country north of Greece, was one of several areas that spoke Greek as a result of the Hellenic people migrating south and east into Asia Minor during the second millennium BC. The Greek language of these people, today known as Attic Greek, became the basis of a common dialect shared not only in Athens but also by other nations surrounding this great philosophical center. Athens was regarded as the center of culture and learning both within Greece and by the nations around it. Then, in 481 BC, Xerxes invaded Greece and sacked Athens. As a result, the power base of the Greek speakers shifted, eventually settling in Macedon, particularly with the reign of Philip II, King of Macedon.

Philip was assassinated in 336 BC, but before his assassination, he appointed his son and heir, Alexander, to lead an expedition to avenge Athens against Persia, for the invasion and sacking of Athens in 481 BC by Xerxes. Alexander of Macedon, known today as Alexander the Great, took the throne upon his father’s death. He was raised with a rich Greek heritage from childhood, having been tutored by the great philosopher Aristotle, and was steeped in the language, literature, and ideals of the Greek world.

In 334 BC, Alexander began his eastward campaign against the Persian Empire. Over the next six years, Alexander conquered Asia Minor, Syria, and the Levant (including the land of Judah or modern Israel), Egypt, Persia, and even the northern parts of India. After conquering one area and before moving on, he appointed Greek-speaking leaders over the different areas he acquired. The people in those areas necessarily incorporated Greek into their local languages to maintain their relationships with the new Greek-speaking rulers.

Alexander died at 32 in 323 BC, just 13 years after he ascended to his father’s throne. His only reported instruction on succession was simply “to the strongest.” Consequently, after his death, his generals fought to control parts of his empire, eventually dividing it into four, the two most significant of which were the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt and the Seleucid Empire in Syria (including the land of Judah).

Despite the division of his empire, Alexander’s conquest continued to exert a Hellenizing influence. Greek continued to be used for international relations between the empires, which, in turn, facilitated its use as a trade language. Soon, Greek became the common language and, in some places, replaced the local language entirely, though most cultures maintained their native languages. Just as Aramaic had been the international language under the Persian empire, so Greek became the international language following Alexander’s conquest of the Persian empire. The significance of Alexander’s conquest is hard to overstate. One author summarized it: “The result of Alexander the Great’s victory over Darius in 330 BCE not only shifted the balance of power in the ancient world to the Macedonian general but also instigated a political and cultural transformation that has shaped the course of Western history down to the present day.”² It was Alexander’s transformation of the culture and language of the ancient world that led to the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. That same linguistic foundation allowed the writings of the early church to take root and transform the first-century Greco-Roman world.

Greek and Israel

Alexander passed through Israel in 333 BC. Since the Jews developed a good relationship with Alexander, his passing through had little military impact. While Israel continued to use Aramaic as the language of the old empire and Hebrew, its native language, Greek gradually became a significant influence in Israel as well. Initially, it was beneficial for diplomatic relations, allowing local leaders to converse with Greek rulers without needing translators. However, since the rest of the world also came to speak Greek, Greek became useful for commercial purposes.

How Empires Transformed Israel

Israel was subject to the change of empires like other nations. In 586, when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians, the end of tribal land distinctions that had existed since Joshua effectively came to an end. The Babylonians destroyed the city, demolished the temple, tore down the city walls, and took most of the population of Judea into captivity in Babylon. In Babylon, the Jews acclimated to Babylonian culture, learned the Aramaic language, and adapted the Hebrew alphabet to Aramaic before being permitted by the Persian king Cyrus to return to their homeland beginning in 538 BC. While in exile, where there was no temple to worship in, the Jews began meeting together in local gatherings, eventually called synagogues. As a result of the Babylonian exile, much about Jewish life and faithfulness to the Torah changed. The temple was rebuilt and completed in 516 BC, but relatively few Jews returned to their homeland after Cyrus’ edict. More significantly for our purposes here, most Jews continued to speak Aramaic at home and with one another rather than Hebrew.³

Israel geographically sat at the crossroads of the new empires that emerged after Alexander’s death. To the south were the Ptolomies, ruling over Egypt. To the North and East was the Seleucid empire, ruling over Asia Minor through modern Turkey and down to Syria.⁴ This made Israel frontier territory, initially belonging to the Ptolomies but subject to invasion from the Seleucids, and central to travel between eastern and western provinces.

The road between these empires traveled from north to south through Israel, and the road to the east intersected the main north-south road in northern Israel. This put Israel on the road from the Western empires from Asia Minor east to the Eastern empires, historically consisting of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Media, and after the death of Alexander, the Seleucid Empire in the north and east and the Ptolemaic Empire in the south. As a result, Israel sat at the crossroads of the world’s prominent trade routes, hosting travelers from the north, south, east, and west.

Since all these nations, after Alexander, used Greek as their political language, they also began to use Greek as their commercial language. Therefore, many, if not most, of the travelers through Israel during the post-Alexander period spoke Greek. Those involved in trade and commerce with these travelers in Israel were disadvantaged if they could not understand and communicate in Greek. Whether you wanted to trade in anything from a room for the night or a meal down to repairing wheels for chariots or weapons for protection, your trade would be limited if you could not converse with those who needed your services. If you were not able to provide a service to someone because you didn’t know how to communicate with them, your neighbor, who could communicate, would have the opportunity to collect that revenue. For this reason, Greek in Israel, like everywhere else, developed into a common language.

Rome gradually grew up in the place of the Greek empire, particularly in the first century BC. While native Romans spoke Latin, many also spoke Greek since most of the world used Greek for commercial and diplomatic purposes. Latin did not become widespread beyond Rome until the 4th century AD, when it began to displace Greek in places.⁵ Thanks to the popularity of Greek, it was possible to travel almost anywhere in the Roman Empire in the first century and communicate reliably with locals in Greek.

The Greek Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures

Jews held a degree of favor throughout the Alexandrian world thanks to the positive interactions between the Jews and Alexander during his passage through Israel. Travel was not uncommon for Jews. Jews were allowed to join the Macedonian forces as soldiers, were allowed to continue to worship and serve the Lord “in the manner of the fathers,” and were exempt from paying tribute every seventh year (an accommodation to Jewish law against planting or reaping every seventh year⁶). Many Jews were attracted to live in Egypt by the prospect of farming; some even accompanied Alexander there. After Alexander’s death and the division of his kingdom, Jews were also taken captive by Ptolemy. Eventually, a sizeable Jewish diaspora developed in Egypt, particularly in Alexandria, holding various positions at all levels of society.

When Ptolemy II (283-246 BC) began acquiring works for his library in Alexandria (one of several cities named after Alexander⁷), he heard that there were writings among the Jews that were worthy of inclusion. So, he took steps to acquire these writings for the library. According to legend, Ptolemy wrote an open letter requesting that the Jewish writings be translated into Greek. The story goes that the Jews in Jerusalem responded by sending 72 translators (6 from each tribe of Israel) with the Hebrew Torah scrolls to Alexandria, where they completed a complete translation in 72 days.⁸ There is considerable discussion about the veracity of this story. Still, it seems clear that the first five books of the Jewish scripture (the Torah, or law) were translated into Greek around 250 BC by a team of Jewish scholars. Though the exact number of translators, the time the translation took, and the circumstances that led to it may differ from the legend, the quality of this translation of the Pentateuch was regarded by (at least some) Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Jews as “a translation of the highest quality.”⁹ Due to the high quality and widespread use of Greek in the Jewish world, the Greek translations of the Jewish scriptures spread rapidly throughout the Greek-speaking world.

Over the next few centuries, the translation work continued beyond the Torah to include the writings (Ketuviim) and the prophets (Neviim).¹⁰ Over time, additional Jewish writings written originally in Greek (rather than Hebrew) came to be associated with this collection. The collection of these writings is often referred to as the Septuagint today and became the form of the Jewish scriptures most widely copied, shared, and used throughout the Greek world. Around the Greek-speaking Jewish world, many synagogues read from the Greek translation of the scriptures, often serving exclusively Greek-speaking Jews. Closer to Israel, where Aramaic was more commonly used at home, Hebrew scriptures were used in the temple and often used in the synagogue. However, even in Israel, synagogues often served only Greek-speaking Jews with the Greek translation of the scriptures.

Greek as an Official Language

Herod the Great was an Idumean ruler (from the Southern part of modern Israel, a half-Jewish group) who ruled by arrangement with Rome. He was an ambitious, clever, politically minded ruler who was a little paranoid. Soon after taking power in 37 BC, Herod made Greek the official language of government, replacing the Aramaic that had been used up to that point.¹¹

To be sure, most Jews still spoke Aramaic at home, the language they had picked up in Babylon during the exile, and they used Hebrew in the Temple and for religious purposes. But Herod’s change to the language of government was not to force the nation to change its language, but rather a recognition of the language of politics and the existing knowledge of the language in the land, in order to bring the nation into line with official Roman policy. In other words, it was not driven merely by his love for and identification with Greco-Roman culture, but by the people’s existing familiarity with and use of the language.

By the time we come to the New Testament period, Greek was well developed not only as a widely used language, but as an official language in Israel.

Greek in the New Testament Period

Most Christians don’t realize that Jesus was familiar with the scriptures in both Hebrew and Greek, and that the disciples most often quoted not from the Hebrew scriptures but the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, the Septuagint.¹² The authors of scripture demonstrated knowledge of the books that we today would call canonical in Greek.¹³ The early church was familiar with and used a wide variety of Greek texts, including pseudepigraphical texts (alluded to in Jude 9, 14). In addition, we find Jewish New Testament authors drawing on Greek literature to connect with their audiences. For example, Paul used pagan literature in his ministry (cited in Acts 17:28).¹⁴ This doesn’t mean they regarded either pseudepigraphical or pagan texts as canonical, but it demonstrates that they were familiar with them and were willing to use them, where appropriate, to develop arguments for their respective audiences. It also demonstrates that these writings were familiar to the recipients, which means they were regarded culturally as acceptable texts, if not holding some degree of authority.¹⁵

The use of Greek translations of scripture is widespread in the New Testament and takes several forms. There are times when the Septuagint is quoted exactly. For example, in John 12:38, John quotes Isaiah 53:1, quoting the Septuagint with precision.¹⁶ There are other times when the Septuagint has been used, but the author has changed certain words. Again, we see this in John when he quotes from Isaiah 40:3 in John 1:23, where he swaps the Septuagint words for “make straight” (εὐθείας ποιεῖτε) for a single Greek word (εὐθύνατε), and uses this in place of “prepare” (ἐτοιμάσατε) in the text. His word choice is consistent with the Septuagint, but his quotation shows either a willingness to change the verse or, more likely, even a willingness to quote the text more generally, much as we might not quote a verse exactly when in haste to recite it.

In addition, we often hear echoes of the Septuagint in readings. A comparable practice in English might be to use the phrase, “God so loved,” which, as a combination of words, immediately draws a modern Christian to think of John 3:16, or “God demonstrated His love,” which might draw us back to Romans 5:8. In these cases, the connection depends on the hearer’s familiarity with the text to make this connection. However, the connection need not be so explicit. Many of the parables Jesus tells draw on connections to the Old Testament, either in Hebrew or Greek texts. For example, the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders (Matt 7:24-27, Luke 6:47-49) echoes Ezekiel 13, which speaks against false prophets who are compared to bad builders. The Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3-9, Mark 4:3-9, Luke 8:5-8) contrasts with the command to not sow among thorns in Jeremiah 4:3, while the hundredfold increase of fruitfulness in the parable echoes Isaac’s hundredfold harvest in Genesis 26:12.¹⁷ New Testament texts often echo Old Testament texts in ways that we might miss since it depends on knowledge of those texts in the Greek or Hebrew languages.

An example of an echo of the Greek Septuagint appears in Acts 3:13, after Peter healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. In his speech, Peter explains what happened, saying, “God… glorified his servant Jesus” (ὁ θεὸς… ἐδόξασεν τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ), echoing the Septuagint in Isaiah 52:13, which says, “My servant will understand and will be exceedingly glorified” (ὁ παῖς μου… δοξασθήσεται σφόδρα). The connection of the Greek term for servant (παῖς) with the verb to glorify (δοξάζω), in the future tense in Isaiah, and the perfective (completed) aspect in Acts 3, argues that Peter is informing his hearers that the prophecy in Isaiah 52 has been fulfilled in the person of Christ. The underlying Hebrew in Isaiah 52:13 is translated “My Servant will prosper; He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted” (LSB). The variation between the Hebrew and Greek texts, and Peter’s use of the same Greek words as in the Septuagint, is not coincidental. It indicates that Peter is working from the Septuagint and assumes that his hearers will understand the connection he is making.

Throughout the New Testament, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, along with other Greek texts, was regularly used as the source of many passages we find in our New Testament.

Greek after the New Testament

Greek became a common language throughout the Western world as far as northern India. This gave rise to a shared cultural heritage that fostered familiarity with centuries of Greek thought and writing, transmitted in the Greek language. Almost everyone in the Roman Empire, particularly outside of Rome, communicated using Greek. If you understood Greek, you were almost guaranteed to be able to travel anywhere in the Western world and communicate with locals in Greek.

Unlike many Western Christians today, who only know English, the ancient world was a multi-lingual world. Anyone involved in politics or trade needed to know Greek to serve their constituents, communicate with rulers and the legal system, and serve customers and do business, particularly in Israel. While the apostles may not have been formally educated, like almost everyone in Israel during the Greco-Roman period, they spoke and wrote comfortably in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. While there is no extant evidence of a Hebrew gospel, it is possible that Matthew wrote an Aramaic gospel and later revised and expanded it into Greek to reach a wider audience.¹⁸ All the New Testament writings were written (and inspired) in Greek because Greek was the language that almost everyone in the Greco-Roman world used and read.

Behind the New Testament lies a rich literary history. We’ve seen that even the apostles were familiar with and willing to use Pagan literature, including Greek poets and writers, to communicate God’s redemptive plan. In the scriptures and the writings of the early church, we see evidence of Plato’s influence, indicating that his long shadow had already fallen over civilization by the time the New Testament was penned. From a Jewish perspective, prior to the birth of Christ, the Septuagint became the world’s most popular form of the TaNaK by the time of the first century. As the first century developed and the church came to think of itself as increasingly separated from the Jewish religion, the Septuagint came to be regarded as the Old Testament for the church, and the Hebrew TaNaK came to be regarded as distinctly Jewish writings. As the early church studied its Old Testament heritage, it did so through the use of the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew scriptures. So, the Septuagint, rather than the Jewish writings, significantly shaped the theology of the early church. This doesn’t mean the Septuagint should be prioritized over the Hebrew text today. Rather, for centuries, the church was shaped by the Greek translations of the Old Testament rather than the original Hebrew texts.

The first recipients of the documents we now call the New Testament were Greek speakers living in a Hellenistic world. The church was born in the Greek language. Its heritage and writings from the beginning are in the Greek language. The first doctrinal debates emerged because the Greek literary world interacted with the divinely inspired scriptures in Greek. All of this literary heritage has been preserved today because the early church valued them, read them, and copied them.

Regaining the Church’s Heritage

Despite this heritage, today, the church barely looks beyond its English translations and seldom looks beyond its English translation of the Bible. However, there is an entire literary world available for Christians to explore in the Greek language. This literature has influenced the church’s thinking and theology from the earliest period down through the ages. Doctrines such as the Trinity and the dual natures of Christ are the bedrock of Christian orthodoxy and address questions arising from Greek thought (particularly Neoplatonism), which were answered within that heritage. The writings that settled these arguments are largely written in Greek, not English.

Since Greek was not a scholarly convenience the apostles happened to adopt, but the living cognitive and cultural medium of the world into which Christ came and in which the church was born, the New Testament is not merely preserved in Greek. It was shaped by the Greek language and mind. Its vocabulary, its syntax, its ways of conveying meaning. To read it in translation is to read it across a chasm of two millennia of cultural transformation that has reforged the assumptions, expectations, and interpretive framework of the Western mind.

If we want to maintain our connection to our rich heritage, we are limited without the ability to read and study these Greek texts. Knowing Greek opens up a new world to us. And if we know Greek, why stop with the New Testament? Why not familiarize ourselves with the Septuagint and Apostolic Fathers as well?

Timeline of Greek

• 586 BC — Jerusalem destroyed, Judah taken into Exile, begin speaking Aramaic in Babylon. Paleo Hebrew begins to adopt the Aramaic script.
• 538 BC — Cyrus permits Jews to return to their homeland.
• 516 BC — The rebuild of the temple in Jerusalem is completed.
• 490-425 BC — Life of Herodotus.
• 481 BC — Persian King Xerxes sacks Athens.
• 460-399 BC — Life of Thucydides.
• 433 BC — Malachi prophecies.
• 428-347 BC — Life of Plato.
• 384-322 BC — Life of Aristotle.
• Circa 400 BC — Attic (classical) Greek begins to spread among the educated classes of the West as a result of Greek poetry and philosophy.
• 336 BC — Alexander becomes King after his father’s assassination.
• 334 BC — Alexander begins his eastward journey to seek revenge on Persia for the sack of Athens.
• 333 BC — Alexander passes through Israel.
• 330 BC — Alexander defeats Darius.
• 323 BC — Alexander dies.
• 283 BC — Ptolemy II becomes King in Egypt.
• Circa 250 BC — The Torah is translated into Greek and begins to be copied and distributed broadly throughout the Greek-speaking Western world.
• 37 BC — Herod the Great takes power and quickly recognizes Greek as an official language of government in Israel.
• 4-5 BC — Christ born.
• ~45-95 AD — New Testament written.
• ~90-150 AD — Apostolic Fathers and Apologists.
• 4th Century AD — Codex Sinaiticus written, including the entire Septuagint and Greek New Testament.