Did Jesus speak Koine Greek?

[Ain't Zwinglian]

Yes. I will marshall the evidence.

In John 7:35, the crowd even speculates that Jesus might leave them and go and teach Greeks, which means they thought he could speak Greek. Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

When Jesus called Simon son of John to follow him (John 1:42), Jesus specifically chose to call him Cephas which is Aramaic for Peter. Then in Matthew 16:18, Jesus reverts back to calling him Peter which is Greek. “And I tell you that you are Peter (Πέτρος), and on this rock (πέτρᾳ) I will build my church.” Jesus is using this play on words between Peter and a rock using the Greek language. The Aramaic does not allow this, as stated before “Cephas only means Peter” and can’t be used as a pun for a rock.

Jesus uses two purposed double entendres using the Greek with his conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are ἄνωθεν.” Jesus floats the Greek word ἄνωθεν with a double meaning and let’s Nicodemus choose which way he will interpret it….either born from above or born again. He chooses to use ἄνωθεν as born again.

Also in the conversation with Nicodemus the double entendres is the double meaning of πνεῦμα as wind or the Spirit of God. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Certainly, Jesus did speak Aramaic…..

• Matthew 27:46 - About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").
• Mark 5:41 - He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means "Little girl, I say to you, get up!").

Evidence suggests, Jesus didn’t exclusively speak, read and understand Aramaic, but the reason he mostly appeared to do so, was simply because that was the language most of the people he was interacting with used in their daily lives, and were most comfortable with.

As many as four languages were known and spoken in the region — Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. The real question, of course, is how widespread each of them was and on what occasions they were used. A plurality of scholars believe the common language in everyday life was indeed Aramaic. However, for trans-regional and cross-communal communication, though, Greek was more useful. Jesus would have been extremely likely to speak Koine Greek; this was the language of trade in the Roman Empire.

By the accounts in the Gospels, Jesus seems to have had no problems communicating with non-Jews such as the Roman Centurion, the Cannanite woman, the Syrophoenician woman (whom Mark specifically states is a Greek (Mark 7:26), and Pilate.

Evidenced also, Jesus’s disciples spoke and wrote Greek. Certainly, James our Lord’s brother, Peter, John, and especially Matthew knew Greek, and mastered it fairly well. Matthew was a tax collector and employed by Rome….which meant he knew probably Latin also.

Jesus had two disciples with Greek names: Andrew and Philip.

In a curious passage of Scripture, certain Greeks sought out Andrew and Phillip specifically because of their Greek names. John 12:20ff Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. The text does not say if Jesus responded to them in Greek or Aramaic, but for certain the Greeks did speak to Phillip and Andrew, and they understood the request.

Critics of Christianity will point out, what we have in the NT is only a translation of what Jesus said in the Aramaic and the Greek translation may and can have mis-translations in them.

Jesus gives us some powerful promises mis-translations in the original autographs didn’t occur. John 14: 25-26 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Here we have the promise of “total recall” the Holy Spirit will give the Apostles during the time they place Jesus’s statements in writing.

All the disciples of Jesus were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of Jesus’s preaching….and all writers were bi-lingual. The Holy Spirit allowed them recall Jesus preaching and translate it correctly for us. The gift of Scripture is a great gift the Holy Spirit has to his church.

We were not there to hear Jesus speak, but he himself promises: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). In whatever human language Jesus made that promise, he is going to keep it.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Yes. I will marshall the evidence.

In John 7:35, the crowd even speculates that Jesus might leave them and go and teach Greeks, which means they thought he could speak Greek. Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

When Jesus called Simon son of John to follow him (John 1:42), Jesus specifically chose to call him Cephas which is Aramaic for Peter. Then in Matthew 16:18, Jesus reverts back to calling him Peter which is Greek. “And I tell you that you are Peter (Πέτρος), and on this rock (πέτρᾳ) I will build my church.” Jesus is using this play on words between Peter and a rock using the Greek language. The Aramaic does not allow this, as stated before “Cephas only means Peter” and can’t be used as a pun for a rock.

Jesus uses two purposed double entendres using the Greek with his conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are ἄνωθεν.” Jesus floats the Greek word ἄνωθεν with a double meaning and let’s Nicodemus choose which way he will interpret it….either born from above or born again. He chooses to use ἄνωθεν as born again.

Also in the conversation with Nicodemus the double entendres is the double meaning of πνεῦμα as wind or the Spirit of God. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Certainly, Jesus did speak Aramaic…..

• Matthew 27:46 - About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").
• Mark 5:41 - He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means "Little girl, I say to you, get up!").

Evidence suggests, Jesus didn’t exclusively speak, read and understand Aramaic, but the reason he mostly appeared to do so, was simply because that was the language most of the people he was interacting with used in their daily lives, and were most comfortable with.

As many as four languages were known and spoken in the region — Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. The real question, of course, is how widespread each of them was and on what occasions they were used. A plurality of scholars believe the common language in everyday life was indeed Aramaic. However, for trans-regional and cross-communal communication, though, Greek was more useful. Jesus would have been extremely likely to speak Koine Greek; this was the language of trade in the Eastern Empire. By the accounts in the Gospels, Jesus seems to have had no problems communicating with non-Jews such as the Roman Centurion and Pilate.

Evidenced also, Jesus’s disciples spoke and wrote Greek. Certainly, James our Lord’s brother, Peter, John, and especially Matthew knew Greek, and mastered it fairly well. Matthew was a tax collector and employed by Rome….which meant he knew probably Latin also. Jesus had two disciples with Greek names: Andrew and Philip.

In a curious passage of Scripture, certain Greeks sought out Andrew and Phillip specifically because of their Greek names. John 12:20ff Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. The text does not say if Jesus responded to them in Greek or Aramaic, but for certain the Greeks did speak to Phillip and Andrew, and they understood the request.

Critics of Christianity will point out, what we have in the NT is only a translation of what Jesus said in the Aramaic and the Greek translation may and can have mis-translations in them.

Jesus gives us some powerful promises mis-translations in the original autographs didn’t occur. John 14: 25-26 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Here we have the promise of “total recall” the Holy Spirit will give the Apostles during the time they place Jesus’s statements in writing.

All the disciples of Jesus were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of Jesus’s preaching….and all writers were bi-lingual. The Holy Spirit allowed them recall Jesus preaching and translate it correctly for us. The gift of Scripture is a great gift the Holy Spirit has to his church.

We were not there to hear Jesus speak, but he himself promises: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). In whatever human language Jesus made that promise, he is going to keep it.

One matter that has puzzled me is that my Greek tutor Prof. E Blaiklock who was on the NIV team kept referring to Coptic Greek as the language spoken - He was a Prof of classics. Can anyone shed light on this ???

 

[The Liturgist]

One matter that has puzzled me is that my Greek tutor Prof. E Blaiklock who was on the NIV team kept referring to Coptic Greek as the language spoken - He was a Prof of classics. Can anyone shed light on this ???

I have no idea what he meant by Coptic Greek. Coptic is an Egyptian language, the descendant of Demotic Greek, which is written using Greek letters but is not a Hellenic language (although Coptic Orthodox Christians use some Greek loan words, like their Syriac Orthodox brethren, such as Kyrie Eleison, which of course means Lord Have Mercy, and also sing a few hymns in Greek such as the Trisagion).

But calling the Coptic language Coptic Greek would be a bit like referring to our tongue as English Franco-Latin, for even though we use a Latin alphabet and many words of Latin, Greek and French origin, English remains fundamentally a West Germanic language most closely related to the Frisian*, Dutch and Low German languages (and also Scots, unless one regards Scots as a dialect on a par with Geordie and other English dialects, which is how I view it).

Now there are the Alexandrian Greeks, of whom fewer than 100,000 remain in Egypt, members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, but I have never heard of their Greek language being called “Coptic Greek.”

Our Lord likely did not speak Coptic to any major degree, although in his very early childhood when St. Mary and Joseph took him to Egypt to flee from the mass infanticide of the Holy Infants by King Herod, he would have encountered it. However, the vernacular of our Lord and the Disciples would have been Galilean Neo-Aramaic, with Hebrew (and Old Testament Aramaic) as a liturgical language, Judaean Neo-Aramaic also in use, and Koine Greek being used as a lingua franca throughout the Eastern Roman Empire, just as Latin was a lingua franca in the Western Empire (which of course at the time of our Lord was still strongly united with the Eastern Empire during the reign or Caesar Augustus and Tiberius).

*The West Frisian dialect of Frisian, which is spoken by many in the Netherlands, is the closest major language to English, and is perhaps closer to English than to Dutch. The spectrum is something like English-West Frisian-Frisian-Dutch-Low German-High German. The Scandinavian languages are also related to us despite being Northern Germanic, although more in their modern forms than in the Old Norse or Icelandic variety. The now extinct East Germanic languages like Gothic are on the opposite end of the Germanic language continuum from English.

 

[Ain't Zwinglian]

Our Lord likely did not speak Coptic to any major degree, although in his very early childhood when St. Mary and Joseph took him to Egypt to flee from the mass infanticide of the Holy Infants by King Herod, he would have encountered it. However, the vernacular of our Lord and the Disciples would have been Galilean Neo-Aramaic, with Hebrew (and Old Testament Aramaic) as a liturgical language, Judaean Neo-Aramaic also in use, and Koine Greek being used as a lingua franca throughout the Eastern Roman Empire, just as Latin was a lingua franca in the Western Empire (which of course at the time of our Lord was still strongly united with the Eastern Empire during the reign or Caesar Augustus and Tiberius).

I bow to this post. Due to Jesus' younger brother James writing his Epistle, Greek must have been taught in Joseph's household. How could a carpenter afford such education for his family. Perhaps the gold of the magi help educate Joseph's family. Due to Joseph and Mary fleeing to Egypt, they would have been in close approximation to Greek speaking people everywhere. The library of Rome was located in Alexandria. Did Mary and Joseph purchase either copies of the LXX or Hebrew Bible with monies? Unknown.

 

[Carl Emerson]

My esteemed tutor said the known world had a common trade language which he called 'Coptic Greek' which God had planned would be a developed language capable of carrying the concepts required to convey His Word rapidly to all mankind.

 

[The Liturgist]

My esteemed tutor said the known world had a common trade language which he called 'Coptic Greek' which God had planned would be a developed language capable of carrying the concepts required to convey His Word rapidly to all mankind.

Ah! Based on the description, I think he must have meant to say Koine Greek, and wound up confusing the words Koine and Coptic in an understandable slip, of the sort many of us, myself very well included, quite often make, since the description given corresponds to Koine Greek in terms of the status of that language as a uniquely powerful, expressive and very wIdely used lingua franca.

Furthermore, among the ancient Egyptian languages, Coptic was preceded by Demotic, which in turn was preceded by ancient Egyptian written in Hieroglyphics; and conversely, confusingly Koine Greek was succeeded by Byzantine Greek and Demotic Greek (Demotic can be interpreted as “popular” or “colloquial” and Koine means “Common” whereas “Coptic” literally means Egyptian). Because of this, saying Coptic instead of Koine would be a very easy slip to make.

And many Eastern Orthodox Christians agree with his views, pertaining to Koine Greek, whereas the Coptic Orthodox regard their language more modestly, compared to our Greek and Syriac brethren, as being the most beautiful language in which they might pray, which is certainly true compared to Arabic, which the Coptic church hopes to phase out in the diaspora (the Bohairic Coptic dialogue used by the Church was forcibly suppressed as a vernacular language by the Muslim rulers of Egypt, who would cut out the tongue of anyone heard speaking it in public).

 

[Carl Emerson]

Yes... he was elderly and could easily have made that slip.

Do we know what % of the population of Israel in Israel in Jesus day were Greek speaking ?

 

[The Liturgist]

Yes... he was elderly and could easily have made that slip.

Do we know what % of the population of Israel in Israel in Jesus day were Greek speaking ?

Not a percentage, but we know it was significant, because you had Hellenized Jews, you had the primarily Greek speaking, very cosmopolitan seaport of Caesarea, and then you also had the Roman provincial government, which of course spoke some Latin, but also very heavily relied on Greek, since the main language of commerce in the Eastern Roman Empire was Greek. Pontius Pilate certainly knew it, and as a Roman provincial governor he almost certainly attended in his youth not only the Grammaticus but also the Rhaetor, and thus, like most well-off Romans, was fluent in Koine Greek. Indeed it is worth noting the fact that it was not until the mid second century under Archbishop St. Victor that the Roman Church translated the Bible and the Liturgy into Latin, in order to have a vernacular liturgy and scripture that could be more well understood by everyone in ancient Rome; up until that point it had been sufficient to simply rely on the Greek scriptures and to celebrate the Mass and the other liturgical offices in Greek.

Likewise, it was not until the third century that the four canonical Gospels were translated into Syriac, and the complete Peshitta, the definitive Syriac Bible, was finished in the fourth century, although there are strong reasons to believe that the liturgy was being done in Syriac and other Aramaic dialects in the first century, and there are also some lost texts that were used by Syriac and Aramaic speaking Christians, such as the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Syriac gospel harmony, the Diatessaron, which was actually quite awful (it has been possible to reconstruct it based on references to how it was laid out), and the compiler of the Diatessaron, Tatian, would later leave the Christian Church to found his own Gnostic sect closely related to the Severians and other Syrian Gnostic sects.

 

[Carl Emerson]

So as a tradesman he would have spoken Greek in the course of His work ???

 

[The Liturgist]

So as a tradesman he would have spoken Greek in the course of His work ???

Possibly, if he had clients who were Hellenic Jews or who were associated with the Imperial army or government.

 

[Ain't Zwinglian]

So as a tradesman he would have spoken Greek in the course of His work ???

Jesus' younger brother wrote an epistle IN KOINE GREEK and we have it today in our Scriptures. How and when did he learn Greek? Apart from the family unit? I think not.

 

[John G.]

The plain and simple answer is: we do not know but it is unlikely.
Nazareth was a small village in Jesus' days and one could get by on Aramaic alone.
Besides, when Greeks wanted to see Jesus (John 12) they went to Philip - a Hellenistic Jew judging from his name. Why didn't they go straight to Jesus?
One thing for sure: contrary to Mel Gibson's film, Jesus did not speak Latin.

 

[Ain't Zwinglian]

he plain and simple answer is: we do not know but it is unlikely.
Nazareth was a small village in Jesus' days and one could get by on Aramaic alone.
Besides, when Greeks wanted to see Jesus (John 12) they went to Philip - a Hellenistic Jew judging from his name. Why didn't they go straight to Jesus?

Jesus also knew Hebrew.

Luke 16:9 Mammon is used, which is Hebrew for “money.”
Mark 7:11 Corban is used, which is “gift of God” in Hebrew.
Matthew 2:11 Levonah is used, which is the Hebrew word for “frankincense.”
These along with a slew of other Hebrew words like:
Rabbi (Matthew 23:7,0);
Beelzebub (Luke 11:15)
Satan (Luke 10:18);
Raca (Matthew 5:22);
Amen.

Furthermore, which language did Jesus use when he read the Isaiah scroll in Luke 4:16-21? Was it Hebrew or from the LXX (Greek)? I have never heard the OT was translated into Aramaic. If you affirm it was Aramaic please cite scholarly source.

 

[John G.]

We can assume that ALL Jewish children knew some Hebrew as teaching, in those days, was mostly from the Scriptures.
It would've been hard to be bar mitzvah'ed if you couldn't read the Torah!
That being said, remember that Hebrew has ceased being a language to converse in since the return from Babylon, pretty much as it was before the creation of the state of Israel.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Near Nazareth was the ancient city of Sepphoris, which in Jesus' day was a major location with lots of trade. Galilee, generally, was known for having a high number of non-Jews in the region. Historically people of Canaanite or Syrian descent, but it was also a region of intense Hellenization after Alexander's conquest.

It isn't difficult to imagine that Galilean Jews would have had regular exposure to the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean--Koine Greek. It would have been beneficial, in fact, for St. Joseph whose work as a carpenter/tekton (craftsman) to be able to speak and understand Koine at least for business. So that Jesus would have grown up around Greek speakers, probably helped Joseph in his carpentry work and trade would have learned and been exposed to it regularly isn't a crazy idea.

When the Lord was speaking in intimate settings with His followers, or to the crowds gathered around Judea, He probably was speaking Aramaic. The fact that people heard Him speak and knew He was from Galilee based on His accent indicates that He was speaking the unique Galilean dialect of Jewish Aramaic (ancient sources mention that Galileans had a very particular way of talking). But that the Lord knew and could speak Koine, is almost certainly likely.

This is all, of course, ignoring the fact that He is the Lord and nothing says He didn't know all languages--though that's perhaps a distinct conversation to have.

In purely mundane terms, it seems pretty likely, given Jesus' upbringing, Joseph's carpentry trade, and the demographics of Galilee that Greek would have been understood and occasionally used--and that Jesus therefore could have used it, especially when He was interacting with non-Jews. Such as the Syrio-Phonecian woman, or the God-fearing Roman centurion.

As another example: It would probably make more sense that both Pilate and Jesus knew Koine, and thus their interaction was in Greek rather than Pilate using Aramaic or Jesus using Latin. Not that it's impossible, only that Greek was a cross-cultural language that Latin speakers and Aramaic speakers would use and know.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[FireDragon76]

Jesus was probably multilingual, as he lived at the crossroads of empires.

 

[The Liturgist]

Jesus also knew Hebrew.

Luke 16:9 Mammon is used, which is Hebrew for “money.”
Mark 7:11 Corban is used, which is “gift of God” in Hebrew.
Matthew 2:11 Levonah is used, which is the Hebrew word for “frankincense.”
These along with a slew of other Hebrew words like:
Rabbi (Matthew 23:7,0);
Beelzebub (Luke 11:15)
Satan (Luke 10:18);
Raca (Matthew 5:22);
Amen.

Furthermore, which language did Jesus use when he read the Isaiah scroll in Luke 4:16-21? Was it Hebrew or from the LXX (Greek)? I have never heard the OT was translated into Aramaic. If you affirm it was Aramaic please cite scholarly source.

Indeed, only the Targumim, which were paraphrases with Rabinnical commentary, were in an Aramaic dialogue, along with a few words scattered throughout the OT, most of which were in the Book of Daniel.

Isaiah, at the time of Christ, existed in at most three languages, Hebrew, Greek (from the LXX) and probably the Ethiopian Ge’ez translation also existed by then.

Hebrew was the liturgical language of the Jews at the time of Christ and anyone with the religious authority our Lord commanded would need to know it. Otherwise it would be like a pre-1969 Roman Catholic priest not knowing Latin, albeit more than that, since Hebrew, while liturgical, appears to have been fairly well understood, with many Hebrew loanwords in the Aramaic vernacular.

 

[The Liturgist]

Jesus' younger brother wrote an epistle IN KOINE GREEK and we have it today in our Scriptures. How and when did he learn Greek? Apart from the family unit? I think not.

Good point.

 

[ViaCrucis]

We can assume that ALL Jewish children knew some Hebrew as teaching, in those days, was mostly from the Scriptures.
It would've been hard to be bar mitzvah'ed if you couldn't read the Torah!

We should be careful to not anachronize too much. In the middle ages there was a massive work of Hebrew revival undertaken by Jewish religious leaders, because outside of those educated elite who studied Hebrew the language was effectively dead. This had been the case for a long time. The average Jewish person didn't know Hebrew, which is why rabbinical leaders made the teaching and learning of Hebrew a high priority. That's how niqqud were developed among the Masoretic scholars, the vowel markers to help facilitate the reading and proper pronunciation of Hebrew.

Prior to this, and in Jesus' time, Jews relied extensively on Aramaic translations, the Targums. Or on other translations, like the Septuagint. The largest and most important body of religious literature in Judaism, other than the Bible itself, the Talmud, was also written in Aramaic.

Chances are slim that Hebrew was studied and known outside of the educated elite specializing in the study of the Torah. It's more than probable that when we read of Jesus reading from the Isaiah scroll at the synagogue in Nazareth that it was either in Aramaic or Greek, not Hebrew.

So while, in our time, learning enough Hebrew to read from the Torah for a Bar Mitzvah is normal in Jewish communities; this is more than likely a result of that Hebrew revival that began in the middle ages, and doesn't reflect 2nd Temple period norms.

Remembering also that modern Judaism took shape following that destruction of the Temple, as Pharisaism evolved into Rabbinic Judaism and became centralized among the Jewish rabbinical leaders in the Persian Empire during and at the beginning of the Talmudic period (with the Temple gone in 70 AD, Jerusalem utterly ruined and turned into a Roman colony after the Bar Kochba War in the early-mid 2nd century, and the expulsion of the Jews by the Romans, the center of Jewish learning moved east to Mesopotamia). This is why we speak of the Babylonian Talmud (there were two forms of the Talmud, there was also a Jerusalem Talmud from Palestine, but which only exists in fragments today).

That being said, remember that Hebrew has ceased being a language to converse in since the return from Babylon, pretty much as it was before the creation of the state of Israel.

Exactly, and without Hebrew revival movements among Jewish leaders in the various Diaspora communities, Hebrew would have remained a virtually dead language--much like Latin--reserved only for the study of the educated elite and certain religious contexts.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Carl Emerson]

We should be careful to not anachronize too much. In the middle ages there was a massive work of Hebrew revival undertaken by Jewish religious leaders, because outside of those educated elite who studied Hebrew the language was effectively dead. This had been the case for a long time. The average Jewish person didn't know Hebrew, which is why rabbinical leaders made the teaching and learning of Hebrew a high priority. That's how niqqud were developed among the Masoretic scholars, the vowel markers to help facilitate the reading and proper pronunciation of Hebrew.

Prior to this, and in Jesus' time, Jews relied extensively on Aramaic translations, the Targums. Or on other translations, like the Septuagint. The largest and most important body of religious literature in Judaism, other than the Bible itself, the Talmud, was also written in Aramaic.

Chances are slim that Hebrew was studied and known outside of the educated elite specializing in the study of the Torah. It's more than probable that when we read of Jesus reading from the Isaiah scroll at the synagogue in Nazareth that it was either in Aramaic or Greek, not Hebrew.

So while, in our time, learning enough Hebrew to read from the Torah for a Bar Mitzvah is normal in Jewish communities; this is more than likely a result of that Hebrew revival that began in the middle ages, and doesn't reflect 2nd Temple period norms.

Remembering also that modern Judaism took shape following that destruction of the Temple, as Pharisaism evolved into Rabbinic Judaism and became centralized among the Jewish rabbinical leaders in the Persian Empire during and at the beginning of the Talmudic period (with the Temple gone in 70 AD, Jerusalem utterly ruined and turned into a Roman colony after the Bar Kochba War in the early-mid 2nd century, and the expulsion of the Jews by the Romans, the center of Jewish learning moved east to Mesopotamia). This is why we speak of the Babylonian Talmud (there were two forms of the Talmud, there was also a Jerusalem Talmud from Palestine, but which only exists in fragments today).



Exactly, and without Hebrew revival movements among Jewish leaders in the various Diaspora communities, Hebrew would have remained a virtually dead language--much like Latin--reserved only for the study of the educated elite and certain religious contexts.

-CryptoLutheran

I understand Hebrew was no longer a spoken language and it's pronunciation was largely lost. Many Jews spoke Yiddish before the Zionist movement revived the language and gave it sound again in the early 19th century. Is this correct ?