Was the New Testament
originally written in Greek or Hebrew?
That is almost the same thing as asking, Was the Messiah a Greek or a
Hebrew?
Perhaps some of the New Testament writings were written in Greek, others in
Aramaic, but the Gospels were originally written in Hebrew. Many Bible
scholars believe that Matthew's gospel was the earliest one written, and
the other gospel authors may have used his as a guideline or format for
their own. If that is the case, they must have been looking at Matthew's
gospel written in Hebrew, and wrote their own version in Hebrew also.
Those originals were copied into the Greek language.
At the time of the Council of Nicea, Constantine the Great, Emperor of
the Roman Empire, had already decided that the new religion would become
more acceptable to the pagans and less identifiable with the Hebrews.
This is the main reason why there are no original manuscripts to be
found of any of the New Testament writings. Some fragments appear in
Aramaic beginning around 140 ad, but the Codex's themselves don't appear until
300ad. Any Bible that you purchase today has been translated from copies
of the missing originals. And some of those are copies of copies.
The originals are either lost or hidden. I
sincerely doubt they were lost, but rather hidden in order to preserve
the false doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.
An important foot note:
When Paul appeared before Governor Felix (Acts:24) a lawyer named
Tertillius argued against Paul, accusing him of being;
.......... a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:
Acts 24:5 (KJV)
To this Paul answered;
....I admit that I worship 
the
  
of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,
Hamashiyach was a
Nazarene. That is why Pilate had inscribed over the cross of Christ:
Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeaorum,
or Iesus the Nazarene King of Judea.
The followers of the " Way," and the Nazarenes are the core
group (believers) of the "Messianic" faith. It was this group that the
Council of Nicea wanted to stamp out.
(more on this in a separate article)
When you study Hebrew, and then compare
Hebrew grammar and composition to the Greek translation of the New
Testament, you can see the Hebrew syntax buried under the Greek words.
To begin with an elementary exercise, to prove that the original Gospels were written in Hebrew,
all one has to do is make a
simple observation of this single immutable rule in Hebrew grammar..
|
The Hebrew letter
"W" (waw) can be used as an ante modifier. That is a
letter which is placed in front of another word. The
"waw" as an ante modifier is translated as
"and."
W
|
Look at the text of Genesis Chapter1shown below. The "w's" are
circled in blue. The English word "and" is rendered below the
Hebrew letter "waw."
In English ( or Greek) grammar, "and" is a conjunction. It is not to be used to begin a
sentence.
The original King James Bible translates
the "waw" as;
"and",
and only "and."
The New King James Version of the Bible translate the "waw"
not only as "and;" but also as:
"so,"
"thus," "now," and "then;"
in an attempt
to improve the grammar.
When I open my NKJV to the first page of Genesis 1(verses 1-27a), I count
35 "waw's" that were translated as;
and, but, so, thus, now, and
then.
Turning to Mark's gospel, in the first 27 sentences, there are 20
sentences that begin with;
and, now, then, and but.
There are 12 in Matthew's gospel, 18 in Luke's gospel, and 10 in John's gospel.
If the New Testament was originally written in Greek, there would not be
a sentence that begins with a conjunction (or copula). The opposite is
true in the Hebrew.
This tells me that the first person to copy these writings into
the Greek language was looking at a Hebrew original.
If we could look at the original Hebrew versions of the New Testament
writings we would see plainly the answers to these and other questions.
Yet, even though the originals are missing there is enough evidence left within the body of scripture to
see the truth.
Study to shew thyself approved unto Yhwh, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more
un- UL-liness.
2 Tim 2:15-16 (KJV)
Home |
