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be supported, that it is abundantly contradicted, partly by proofs which might be brought forward, to shew the universal propagation of the Targums among the Jews of Palestine, (See above page 37, sqq.) and partly by the express testimony of Epiphanius, who was well acquainted both with the Hebrew and the Aramaic languages.

5 Opp. ed. Petavii. T. I. p. 122. Ἑβραϊκὴν δὲ διάλεκτον ἀκριβῶς εἰσὶν ἠσκημένοι (sc. Nazareni) παρ' αὐτοῖς γὰρ πᾶς ὁ νόμος, καὶ οἱ προφῆται, καὶ τὰ γραφεῖα λεγόμενα—Εβραϊκῶς ἀναγινώσκεται, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καὶ παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις.

ANNOTATION.

The following Note, in all essential points agreeing with Dr. PFANNKUCHE'S Theory, is extracted from Dr. JoHANN FR. RÖHR's Palästina oder Historisch-Geographische Beschreibung des Jüdischen Landes zur Zeit Jesu. Sixth Edition. Zeitz, 1831, 8vo., and thus it will be observed, that Dr. PFANNKUCHE'S Treatise unfolds a Theory which now may be considered as settled, and finally received among the learned.

"The language of Palestine was, in ancient times, the common language of Western Asia, THE ARAMEAN,-the same as that which was spoken by the CANAANITE natives, and which, subsequently, by the HEBREWS, the progeny of Abraham, who was a new settler of that country, was called

the Hebrew language, it being the peculiar language of that nation. The adolescence of this language, or the period of its development towards that degree of perfection which we find it to have attained in the writings of the Old Testament, does surely not extend beyond the age of DAVID and SOLOMON, and the age of the Prophet Schools established by SAMUEL-its golden age lasted from the time of David to the Babylonian Captivity, and, during this period probably, a great part of the sacred writings of the Jews was composed. By the Babylonian Captivity, this old Hebrew tongue was expatriated by the Aramaic, which was current in Babylon, and which, as its pronunciation was somewhat broad and vulgar, bore the same relationship to the Hebrew, as the Lower Saxon dialect to High German, [or Lowland Scottish to English:] this Babylonian Aramaic soon became the national language of the Jews, the ancient Hebrew for some time still remaining the language of literature, although, it must be admitted, that fragments, written in Aramaic, are found in the sacred volumes composed in the later part of this period.

"At the time of Jesus Christ, the ancient Hebrew was completely extinct, even in its character of language of literature; and all the Jews at that period residing in Palestine spoke and wrote the Aramaic. Jesus, too, spoke this language; and the names Kephas, (John i. 42,) Boanerges, (Mark iii. 17,) Barnabas, (Acts iv. 36;) as also the expres. sions: Talitha kumi, (Mark v. 41,) Abba, (Ib. xiv. 36,) Eli, Eli, &c. (Matth. xxvii. 46,) are specimens of it.

"People of liberal education spoke this language as it was written, but the common people, as generally is the case, spoke it in different dialects. The dialect of Jerusalem and Judea was most correct; but that which prevailed in Samaria, and particularly that of Galilee, was much more rude than the former, full of contractions and mutilations; letters were omitted in it, and one guttural exchanged for another, so that, for example, according to the careless and ir.

regular pronunciation of the Galilean dialect, the same words might denote an ass, wine, wool, and a lamb to be sacrificed. A Galilean was, therefore, easily recognised by his pronunciation, (Matth. xxvi. 73,) and was never admitted as a public reader of Scripture in any synagogue of Judea. Jews residing abroad in Greek countries, particularly in Egypt, had completely adopted the Greek language as their own; and even in Palestine itself, where abhorrence against everything foreign was affected, it seems that, partly through intercourse with Jews residing abroad who spoke Greek, partly through the neighbourhood to Syria and Egypt, where Greek was generally spoken, and partly through Greek residenters, of whom, especially in Galilee and Perea, vast numbers dwelt among the Jews, the Greek had become generally known and current. This appears from Acts ii. 7-11, where Jews, from Greek countries and provinces, witnessing the enthusiasm which had seized the Apostles and their friends, wondered that they expressed their religious thoughts and sentiments in Greek dialects, which they had been accustomed to hear abroad, and not merely, as was usual, in ancient Hebrew; likewise from Acts vi. 1-6, where a considerable number of the primitive members of the Christian community at Jerusalem is stated to have been Hellenistic, or Greek speaking; and also from Acts xxii. 40, compared with xxii. 2, where the Jews expected PAUL, who had been accused by Greek Jews, to address them in Greek, but were delighted to hear him speak to them in the language of the country. Several other hints to the same effect need not here be mentioned. Whether Jesus himself understood and spoke Greek cannot he determined for certain, although it is highly probable; because in Galilee and Perea he was in frequent intercourse with foreigners; because, even in Jerusalem, an interview with him was sought by Greeks, John xii. 20, and these surely spoke no other language than Greek; because, we must suppose that the conferences between Jesus and Pilate, men

90

THE LANGUAGe of palestine, &c.

tioned in John xviii. 33-37, and xix. 9-11, was certainly carried on neither in Aramaic nor Latin, but in Greek; and because Mary, in her conversation with Jesus, John xx. 14, sqq., seems to have made use of the Greek language until she recognised him as arisen from the dead, when she instantly returns to the familiar Aramaic, to which, in daily intercourse with him she was accustomed, and addressed him with the word Rabboni. The Apostles, too, being Galileans, must be supposed to have been more or less acquainted with Greek, even during the three years of their familiar intercourse with Jesus, although it may have been only at a subsequent period, that they, in their vocation as messengers of the Gospel, rendered themselves more perfect masters of it, so as to be able to express in writing their thoughts in that language.

"The Latin language was spoken in Palestine only by Romans, and in the Roman garrisons, and, perhaps, understood by a few Jews.

"The circumstance that Pilate fastened to the cross the cause for which Jesus suffered death, in the HEBREW, the GREEK, and the LATIN LANGUAGE, (John xix. 20,) seems to express, with accuracy, the relation in which the prevailing languages of Palestine stood to one another. The first was the language of the country; in the next degree to it the Greek prevailed; and last, or in the most limited degree, the Latin, although it was the language of governGeneral philology, or the knowledge of foreign tongues, acquired with the view of gathering information from books written in them, was at no period common among the Jews, because, in their estimation, the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge were only to be sought in their sacred writings."

ment.

DISSERTATION

ON THE

TRUE NATURE AND GENIUS

OF

THE GREEK DICTION

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

BY HENRY PLANCK,

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT GOTTINGEN.

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