What language did Jesus Christ speak?

When the ten tribes were carried away, the colonists who took their place brought the Aramaic language with them. The Jews who returned from Babylon also brought many words of the same language. And though it doubtless went through various changes, this was the language commonly spoken in Palestine when our Lord was on earth, and it is the language called HEBREW in the New Testament.

At the time of our Lord, this was the native language of Palestine; and it occurs in our Testaments in the words Ephphatha, Talitha Cumi, Eli Eli lama Sabachthani, and so on. This was also the language of the inscription on the cross, and of Paul's speech recorded in Acts 22. Although in both these cases Hebrew is mentioned, there is no doubt that it is the modern, not the ancient, language that is meant.

Mark alone gives us four utterances of our Lord in the actual language in which He spoke. Outstanding among them is the cry from the cross, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" (Mark 15:34).

Entering the house with Peter, James and John, and going on to the room of death, He raised the dead in the presence of the parents, speaking to her, as Mark tells us, in Aramaic, not in Greek, "Talitha, cumi," which is, being interpreted, "Damsel, I say to you, Arise."

Scholars have for the most part assumed that Aramaic is the language underlying the Lord's discourses in the Gospels, and those of the Apostles in the Book of Acts; but some have held that Greek was the language they usually used… The only solution of the difficulty is to suppose that the Lord and His immediate followers were bilingual, speaking both Aramaic and Greek — using the one among the less educated part of the community, the other often in parts of the country such as "Galilee of the nations," or when dealing with Greek-speaking Jews even in Jerusalem.

It is a matter of discussion whether our Lord and His Apostles spoke Greek or Aramaic, and it does not seem possible to give a decided verdict on the question. It is likely enough that all the people of Palestine, except the most isolated or the most uneducated, understood and used both forms of speech.

The inscription on the Saviour's cross was written in three languages — Hebrew, the language of the Jews, to whom the Lord was sent; Greek, the language of commerce in those days, of the cultured and artistic; Latin, the language of the Roman, under whose iron rule the whole civilised world lay. Clearly the message was to be sent in its full testimony to mankind wherever found.

Not only was the New Testament written in Greek, but the Old Testament was also translated into the same language, and that version was quoted by both the Lord and His apostles.

"Abba" is the Chaldee, or Aramaic, word for Father. It is a word made with the lips only, so that a very small child who has no teeth yet could say it… This is the word that our Lord Himself has made so dear to the heart of every true child of God, as we stand with bowed heads and bowed hearts and hear Him cry on that dark night in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Abba, Father."