The History Behind Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis’s Awkward Jesus Moment

Bottom line: the idea that “Jesus” spoke Aramaic and “not Hebrew” is founded upon simply anti-Judaism.

What utter nonsense! Jesus is just as much Jewish no matter what he and his fellow Jews spoke at the time. Not everything is an anti-Jewish conspiracy.

You protest too much. If it does not matter, then why keep pressing the point? Because it is Catholic doctrine, that is why. It is Catholic doctrine for a reason. The “supremacy of the Church” over the vanquished Jew. Take a look at your
Vatican art, some time.

Because it is Catholic doctrine, that is why.

It's not doctrine, just the scholarly consensus. Theologically it would make no difference what language Jesus and his fellow Jews spoke. But I do wonder why you must insist that his language must have been Hebrew. Would he be less Jewish if he spoke Aramaic? There were plenty of Jews at the time, as there are now, who did not speak Hebrew as their vernacular. They were no less Jews than those who did.

Actually, until I started studying ancient manuscripts I was of the opinion that he spoke Aramaic. I was surprised to learn that it is theology (or politics) that informs that position, not history.

There is a profound amount of anachronism at work as well. Because the Babylonian Talmud tells us that common Jews had forgotten Hebrew, many assumed that was true across the Jewish communities. It was not. In Alexandria, Jews spoke primarily Greek. In Rome, they spoke primarily Latin. In Babylon they spoke Aramaic. In Partha, they spoke Persian etc. But from the days of Ezra to the Second Jewish Revolt, the common tongue in Israel was Hebrew.

A simple visit to the Israel Museum and Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem will confirm what Hebrew scholars have said since at least the time of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls - as a member of the working class, Jesus would have spoken the language of the working class: Hebrew.

You mentioned the Targumin as if their being in Aramaic indicates anything at all - and yet you ignore that fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls predate the Targumin - and the vast majority are in Hebrew.

According to my Bible, everyone was speaking to each other in English.

Yeah! Finally, someone makes sense here.

Also Jesus spoke in red words.

:^)

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