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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Yiri's Last Stand ... Brunson's Last Fall
Message-ID: <1022@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 13:35:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.1022
Posted: Tue Oct  9 13:35:39 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Oct-84 04:16:14 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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Although the vernacular at the time of Jesus was indeed Aramaic, one should
not discount the prevalence of Greek.  There were major infusions of Greek
thought and culture, and a large segment of the upper classes were thoroughly
Hellenized.  It is not at all improbable that the New Testament was written
in Greek by Hellenized Jews, much as a medieval European scholar would write
in Latin, regardless of his/her native tongue.  This is supported by some of
the textual evidence.  One of the more accessible examples is in the accounts
of the crucifixion in the Gospels (sorry, I don't remember which one).  Jesus's
cry of anguish "My Lord, my Lord, why have you forsaken me?" *is* written in
Aramaic: "Eli, Eli, lamah smachthani?"  There would be little point to retaining
just that phrase when translating to Greek from an Aramaic original.  A (secular
Jewish) professor of Judaic Studies I know felt that that phrase was extremely
significant, as an indicator of the power of the moment on the observers.