Hebrew was alive and well in a basically trilingual society in the land of Israel during the first century C.E.
The Lord’s Prayer Chanted in Greek
Listen to a recent recording of the Lord’s Prayer sung in Greek in the style of a Gregorian chant.
Why Do You Call Me ‘Lord’?: On the Origins of Jesus’ Dominical Title
The confession “Jesus is Lord” is the simplest and earliest Christian creed. But how did referring to Jesus as “Lord” begin?
The Names of Jerusalem in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts
What can the Greek and Hebrew forms of Jerusalem’s name tell us either about the sources of the Synoptic Gospels and Acts or the audiences to whom these works were addressed?
Cumulative Life of Yeshua Greek Reconstructions
The reconstructed Greek text of the Anthology (thus far completed) with accompanying English translation.
LOY Excursus: The Genitive Absolute in the Synoptic Gospels
What can the distribution of genitive absolute constructions in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us about the origins of the Synoptic Gospels?
Evidence for Hebrew Roots of Matthew 1:21
The oldest known manuscripts of the New Testament were written in Greek, but by comparing Matt. 1:21 in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek with the knowledge of the naming formula so common in the Hebrew Bible, we see that this verse only makes sense in Hebrew. Since the naming formula depends on a wordplay that does not work in Greek or Aramaic, Matt. 1:21, or the oral tradition behind it, had to be in Hebrew.
Notley Lecture: “Between the Chairs: New Testament Evidence for the Hebrew Jesus Spoke”
Dr. R. Steven Notley is a contributor to Jerusalem Perspective and member of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research. He is Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Nyack College in New York. In this lecture Dr. Notley discusses examples of how the Hebrew language influenced the Greek text of the canonical Gospels.
LOY Excursus: Greek Transliterations of Hebrew, Aramaic and Hebrew/Aramaic Words in the Synoptic Gospels
One of the clues that the Synoptic Gospels descended from a Hebrew Life of Yeshua is the number of foreign words that were transliterated into Greek from either Hebrew or Aramaic (it is often impossible to distinguish Hebrew from Aramaic in Greek transliteration).
“Treasure in Heaven”: Examining an Ancient Idiom for Charity
The growing value placed on charity in the first century C.E. cannot be overstated. As a new sensitivity developed within Judaism that challenged the compensatory “blessings and curses” paradigm of the Hebrew Bible (cf. Deut. 28) as a basis to serve God, so there was a shifting emphasis towards altruistic love embodied in the Levitical commandment, “…and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ אֲנִי יי; Lev. 19:18).”