[Red Badger]

According to Post #7:

Pannonia largely corresponds to what today called Hungary.

So, he was a Hungarian. Greek must have been the lingua franca of the day...............

[Tallguy]

“Greek must have been the lingua franca of the day...............”

The language of trade in the Eastern Med was “Koine” (sp?) which was a form of Greek. Basically the language of commerce that followed the path of Alexander’s Armies.

[elcid1970]

It was indeed; Greek was then more widely spoken than even Latin, especially in the Middle East. The Septuagint was the Hebrew Scriptures translated into Greek before the time of Christ, and his apostles chose it as the lingua franca to spread the Gospel message to non-Jews in the region.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Hungarians did not arrive in that region until more than 600 years later.

Pannonia corresponds roughly to western Hungary plus a bit of eastern Austria, eastern Slovenia, and eastern Croatia.

Greek was widely used in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Paul was able to travel from city to city in Asia Minor and speak to the locals in Greek. There were a lot of Greek-speakers in Egypt, both in Alexandria and in some cities elsewhere in Egypt.