Greek the Original Language of the New Testament: New wine in new wineskins

By Giuseppe Guarino

We got the New Testament in an “original” Greek. The Author was recently confronted with some claims that Greek was not its actual language of composition for the Christian Scriptures. Then he asked himself: “Were the autographs of the New Testament actually written in Greek or Hebrew, Aramaic, or whatever language or dialect was spoken by the Jews in Israel during the first century?” He investigated the matter and found enough reasonable evidence to come up with convincing conclusions. They are collected here, hoping they will be a satisfactory answer to those interested in this challenging question.

Giuseppe Guarino was born in Catania, Sicily. He loves the Bible and has dedicated the last twenty years to the study of its original languages. Among his books, New Testament Greek for Beginners, The Majority Text, Jewish Background of the New Testament, The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible, 7Q5 The New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls,, Caught Between Science and Faith, The Name of God, 53: The Death of the Messiah Foretold and explained. Check his official website for updates www.giuseppeguarino.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Giuseppe Guarino
• Release date: Feb 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781447858935

Book preview

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GREEK

THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE

OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

new wine into new wineskins

GIUSEPPE GUARINO

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All rights reserved

Copyright © 2023 Giuseppe Guarino

No part of this book can be reproduced

without the publisher’s prior written consent

Author: Giuseppe Guarino

Layout and Cover: Giuseppe Guarino

e-mail: [e-mail]

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CONTENTS

Introduction        7

The Language of the New Testament 11

2.    History behind Biblical Greek Koinè   19

3.    Paul and Luke       25

4.    John       33

5.    Mark       51

6.    Matthew      61

7.    The Name      75

8.    Hebrew words in the Greek

New Testament     89

9.    Revelation 1:8      95

10.                        The Greek of the New Testament 101

11.                        Conclusion    109

Bibliography    113

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Introduction

This collection of considerations is a personal review of facts I have learned and thoughts I have meditated on the challenging topic described in the title of this book.

We got the New Testament in an original Greek. I was recently confronted with some claims that this is not its actual language of composition.

So, I asked myself: were the autographs of the New  Testament actually written in Greek or Hebrew or even Aramaic, or whatever language or dialect was spoken by the Jews in Israel during the first century?

I investigated the matter and found enough reasonable evidence to come up with convincing ideas. I collected them here.

I pray the results of my study will give a satisfactory answer to those interested in this challenging question.

Sicily, 9th December, 2018.

If you want to study Biblical Greek, please check my website page dedicated to it.

https://www.giuseppeguarino.com/2017/04/28/biblical-greek-lessons/

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The end of Luke and the beginning of John in the famous

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P⁷⁵ dated around 200 AD.

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1

The Language of the New Testament

As far as evidence is concerned, the original Text of the New Testament has been handed down to us through manuscripts which contain it in Greek.

The question has recently been asked me: Are you sure the original New Testament was actually written in Greek?

The New Testament is a collection of books written independently, at various times and in different places, for specific immediate needs or purposes.

In this perspective, and for the sake of convenience, we will discuss about those books separately.

The initial question, in fact, must be thus reviewed: were any or all of the books of the New Testament originally written in another language that was not the Greek in which they have travelled down through the centuries?

If we rely on external, objective, evidence only, we must answer the preceding question positively. There is, in fact, no manuscript attestation that can actually compete with the over six thousand representing the Greek originals of the New Testament.

The Church has constantly relied on the Greek manuscripts as a witness to the original text of the Christian Scriptures. And, apart from some references to Hebrew autographs, like Matthew for example, we have no other serious candidate for a non-Greek original language.

The above made me always state, and I confirm it now, that the New Testament was originally written in Greek.

The first century Greek spoken everywhere in the Roman Empire is called Koinè. But I prefer to refer to Biblical Greek when speaking of the language of the Septuagint or of that of the New Testament.

Koinè was the language of commerce, of contracts and documents. It was the language spoken everywhere in the former Greek empire founded by Alexander the Great.

The peculiarities of the language of the Scriptures became even more evident in the hands of the early Christians.

So many conjectures, suppositions and ideas can be added to the above statement which represents facts as they are. So many details of the language of the New Testament can be investigated.

The purpose, my purpose, is not and cannot be arguing or trying to prove or disprove this or that theory, but to deepen and widen our understanding of the holy scriptures, their meaning, authority and authenticity.

If I wanted to shock the readers I would say that all the books of the New Testament were basically written in Hebrew, this term being a general way to address the language currently spoken in Israel during the times of

Jesus – if it was biblical Hebrew or Aramaic, we will say something about it later. In fact, even if Paul, Luke, or any other inspired author entrusted their thoughts and ideas to the Greek language, their mother tongue, frame of mind and the environment in which they lived was Jewish, Semitic. The Faith they were writing about was based on Hebrew Scriptures. Very probably in their work they consulted some reliable early document in Hebrew – abundant evidence shows the latter is more than an assumption.

Had the New Testament been written