[B-Greek] "The Passion" and Koine Greek

James Jackson jajackso at excite.com
Wed Sep 17 16:11:05 EDT 2003


 
Mel Gibson has made a film (scheduled for release ca. Easter 2004) called “The Passion”. He stated that he wanted it to be historically accurate and therefore the characters will only speak Aramaic and Latin. With the understanding that this is a Hollywood production I’m curious as to why there would be no Koine Greek spoken in this movie. Would the Roman-educated prefect Pilate have known the Greek language or Hebrew or Aramaic? How did he interact with the Jewish religious leaders? Perhaps through a translator?
In Matthew 27:46 the GNT seems to have a Greek transliteration of the Aramaic words that Jesus spoke from the cross: HLI HLI LEMA SABACQANI. In Acts 26:14 it states that Jesus spoke to Saul in the Hebrew language. It seems the New Testament makes a special mention of the times when the Greek language was not spoken.
So I guess my question is, was Koine Greek a prevalent language spoken in Israel during the first century? I realize that there were many Hellenistic Jews living in Israel at that time and would have spoken Greek to each other. However I am not sure what language would have been spoken between those of different nationalities during that time.
I was hoping to hear some Koine Greek spoken in this movie but it does not seem that it will happen.
James Jackson

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