Why Aramaic, Not Hebrew, Was the Everyday Spoken Language in Jesus’ Time

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1. Shift after the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE) 🏛️

• 📜 When the Babylonians conquered Judah in 586 BCE, many Jews were exiled to Babylon.

• 🗣️ There, Aramaic was the administrative and common language of the empire.

• 🔄 Even after the Persians allowed the Jews to return, Aramaic remained dominant, especially in trade, government, and daily life.

• ✡️ Hebrew, by contrast, became more of a literary and liturgical language, preserved mainly for scripture and worship.

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2. Aramaic as the Lingua Franca of the Near East 🌍

• 🏺 From the Persian Empire (539–331 BCE) through to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Aramaic served as the lingua franca across the Near East.

• 👥 It was the “everyday language of the street” in Judea, Galilee, and Syria, making it natural for Jewish communities to adopt it.

• ⛪ Just as Latin survived as the language of the Catholic Church long after people stopped speaking it daily, Hebrew survived mainly in synagogues and study.

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3. Hebrew’s Decline into a Scholarly/Religious Tongue 📚

• ⏳ By the 1st century CE, Hebrew had shifted into the realm of religion, scholarship, and identity:

• 📖 Scriptures were read in Hebrew, but often explained in Aramaic translations (Targums) so people could understand.

• 🕎 Rabbis, scribes, and priests were trained in Hebrew, but the average Jewish villager spoke Aramaic.

• 🪶 This is why parts of the Old Testament written later (e.g., Daniel, Ezra) include Aramaic sections.

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4. Jesus’ Context ✝️

• 🌾 Jesus, as a Galilean Jew, grew up in a culture where Aramaic was the mother tongue.

• 🗨️ Many Gospel words preserved in their original form are Aramaic, e.g.:

• ✋ Talitha koum (“Little girl, arise” – Mark 5:41),

• 🙏 Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Mark 15:34).

• 📜 He likely knew Hebrew for scripture reading and Greek for interacting with broader society, but his daily speech was Aramaic.

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✅ In Summary

Aramaic became dominant because it was the common spoken language of the wider region after the Babylonian Exile and under successive empires.

✡️ Hebrew survived mainly as a sacred and scholarly language.

📣 By Jesus’ time, ordinary Jews spoke Aramaic in daily life, while Hebrew was reserved for the synagogue.

— Azahari Hassim

Founder, The World of Abrahamic Theology