Semitic Origins of the NT Part 1 of 6

The archeological, historical, manuscript, textual, and cultural evidence of an original Semitic/Hebrew New Testament. Presented by Jeff A. Benner at the "Restoration" conference in Portland Oregon in July 2008.

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[phreakazoas]

Contractions are part of colloquial speech, but aren't the whole. Contractions can be found in more formal speech/writing,e.g. "I'm" in a business email. Other contractions may be colloquial & informal e.g. y'all, ain't. I learnt English contractions when I was learning it(French is my first language), and yet I didn't speak it. Also, just because the coins are in Hebrew, doesn't mean they spoke it, e.g. in Canada/US parts of our coins are in Latin. I don't disagree with point but the argument.

[ancienthebreworg]

@phreakazoas You bring up some very good arguments, but while these contractions are used in our writing today, and we use Latin on our coins today, is there evidence that the same things occurred in Ancient times, not that I have seen so far.

[mrd6376]

So in your view, did most Jews living outside of Palestine in the 1st Cent. C.E. still know how to speak Hebrew? I realize that Hebrew was still a living language in Palestine, but do not most scholars seem to suggest that the Septuagint was originally undertaken for Greek-speaking Jews outside of Palestine who no longer could speak Hebrew?

[ancienthebreworg]

@mrd6376 Historically, Jews who remain orthodox in their view of Torah have always retained the Hebrew language, even to this day. But there are the non-Orthodox Jews, who still study Torah, but do not retain the Hebrew language. I am sure this was the case in the first century and the reason for the LXX.

[mrd6376]

So let's see if I understand this clearly: Basically what you are saying is that when Paul and other NT writers penned a letter in Hebrew, they would send it to Hebrew-speaking overseers and those overseers would read the letter in the local language that the congregation would understand....Is this what was going on?

[ancienthebreworg]

@mrd6376 First of all, I believe that most of the people in the Synagogue spoke Hebrew. There may have been a few non-Hebrew speakers, and it would have been translated for them.

[ancienthebreworg]

@melbourneopera The Jews spoke Hebrew in Israel at the time of Jesus, but also Aramaic. It is highly doubtful that many of them even knew Greek as Josephus tells us that the Jews discouraged learning anything Greek.

[paisleyyama]

@mrd6376 I read an anthropology of the Eastern European Jews in the era before WWI, & throughout Eastern Europe the Jews were sending their young sons to Hebrew school. Yiddish or any other lang. was considered profane when it came to the Torah. And in their synagogues they had someone to read the Hebrew scroll. So obviously Hebrew was a tradition that was passed on to Jews from 1 generation to the next even when exiled throughout the world. Like the Passover, it was something they maintained.

[albertsneijMD]

biblical archeology is loaded with fraud, period.

[albertsneijMD]

@ancienthebreworg that depends on if you are Greek, and if you believed in the Greek Gods and Goddesses.

Religion(s) is partial and political.

[bbadweb]

The best way to make some one believe a lie, attache it to the TRUTH. We were warned by GOD. Read DANIEL 12. Christ is a LIE.