Expert: Jon Bond - 4/12/2007

Question
Was the Bible originally written in Greek or Latin? Either way, since no one currently fluently speaks the language in its original form, isn't the Bible not completely accurate. I know it has been translated, but it can only be the translation/interpretation of the meaning, and the the exact words of God as it was meant to be read.

Answer
Greetings:

When I search the web, I came up with what I believe to be an authoritative answer to your question:

Was the Bible originally written in Greek or Latin? Either way, since no one currently fluently speaks the language in its original form, isn't the Bible not completely accurate. I know it has been translated, but it can only be the translation/interpretation of the meaning, and the exact words of God as it was meant to be read.

Please allow me to break your one question into two areas:

1) Who wrote the Bible (and in what language  The short answer is that most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek (a personal observation; I have just finished reading a book, The Outline of History, by H.G. Wells, which says “the artistic and literary culture of Rome was a mere branch of the great Hellenic culture that had inherited all that Greece and nearer Asia, Babylon and Egypt, had to bestow.” i.e. Greek scholarship (in Greek) vs. Roman empire history (in Latin).  Who and in what language is best answered by a group who I consider to be the “expert”.That group is the International Bible Society.  You can see their website at http://www.ibs.org wherein this is what they have to say:

In what language was the Bible first written?

The first human author to write down the biblical record was Moses. He was commanded by God to take on this task, for Exodus 34:27 records God's words to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." And what language did he use? He wrote in his native language, called Hebrew.

Hebrew is one of a group of languages known as the Semitic languages which were spoken throughout that part of the world, then called Mesopotamia, located today mainly in Iraq. Their alphabet consisted of 22 letters, all consonants. (Imagine having an alphabet with no vowels! Much later they did add vowels.)

Almost the entire Old Testament was written in Hebrew during the thousand years of its composition. But a few chapters in the prophecies of Ezra and Daniel and one verse in Jeremiah were written in a language called Aramaic. This language became very popular in the ancient world and actually displaced many other languages. Aramaic even became the common language spoken in Israel in Jesus' time, and it was likely the language He spoke day by day. Some Aramaic words were even used by the Gospel writers in the New Testament.

The New Testament, however, was written in Greek. This seems strange, since you might think it would be either Hebrew or Aramaic. However, Greek was the language of scholarship during the years of the composition of the New Testament from 50 to 100 AD. The fact is that many Jews could not even read Hebrew anymore, and this disturbed the Jewish leaders a lot! So, around 300 BC a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek was undertaken, and it was completed around 200 BC. Gradually this Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, was widely accepted and was even used in many synagogues. It also became a wonderful missionary tool for the early Christians, for now the Greeks could read God's Word in their own tongue.
So the New Testament authors wrote in Greek. They did not, however, use really high-class or classical Greek, but a very common and everyday type of Greek. For many years some scholars ridiculed the Greek of the New Testament because many of its words were strange to those who read the writings of the great Greek classical authors such as Plato and Aristotle. But later many records were uncovered of ordinary people, and amazingly there were the same common terms used in everyday speech! The ridicule dried up accordingly.

The earliest copies of parts of the Hebrew Old Testament were discovered in 1947. They are part of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls and actually date back to the first century BC. Even though they are at least 900 years older than any parts of the Bible we had before this, they are not the originals. They are copies. The originals have all been lost or destroyed. But we are not at all doubtful that we may not have the original text. Copying by scribes was done with great care in those days and because the text was regarded as sacred, the copyists were extremely painstaking. Today some 5000 hand-copied documents exist of all or part of the Bible, and they agree in 98% of the text! No other ancient writing has this amount of underlying support with such amazing agreement as to the text.

2) Your question may lead to another having to do with what you ask when you write “the exact words of God as it was meant to be read”  You must accept the fact that God didn’t write/publish any words/books in the Bible.  The words come from humans who felt a “God Consciousness”, i.e. “the spirit moved them” to write historical accounts, etc.  I have put together a list of 136 Biblical contradictions, but when I do a search on the ‘net, I found a list of 143 Biblical contradictions.  Those 143 are available from: http://www.evilbible.com/Biblical%20Contradictions.htm

To conclude in answering you, you have posed an important question and I applaud your carefully worded question.  I must say that most Unitarian Universalists deny the divine inspiration and absolute authority of the Scriptures.  Most UUs claim the Bible was merely the creation of men, and therefore, the Bible contains many "inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and errors."  Consequently they substitute human reason for revelation as their source of authority, and believe there are no absolute or infallible guides, including reason.  In fact, UUs desire a world religion that "draws from and honors the teachings of all of the great religious traditions."

Keep up the search!

Jon Bond