[B-Greek] Paul writing in Latin or Hebrew/Aramaic?
jgibson000 at comcast.net
jgibson000 at comcast.net
Mon Aug 23 09:03:45 EDT 2010
On 8/23/2010 7:56 PM, Justin Chamberlain wrote:
> The Romans did in fact speak Latin but Greek was the language of commerce
> and a universally known language of the day. The Romans could read and write
> Greek. Paul wrote to the Roman church in Greek for this reason
Actually I think he wrote in Greek not because of anything
characteristic of those /native/ to Italy and to The City, but because
of the demographic of the Christian communities. These would most
likely be people or the children of people who came from the Eastern
portion of the Roam Empire.
And is it not actually inaccurate to speak of the Roman church. In
Romans Paul never speaks of the Church in Rome, but cells of believers.
For a thorough and insightful discussion of the demographics of the
Christ believers in Rome in the 60s of the first century CE, see Robert
Jewett's Hermeneia commentary on Romans.
Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000 at comcast.net
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