NineOneFour wrote:

Animavore wrote:How did it end up happening that the Bible NT was originally written in Greek?

Blame Alexander the Great.

No, really.

Alexander spoke Greek and the territory he conquered became Greek-speakers, which included modern Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran. When he died, his three main Greek generals split the empire, but each third remained Greek-speaking.

The Romans had only taken over Turkey and Palestine within a generation or so and had not had time to Latinize the area. Most educated people (literates) spoke and wrote Greek in that area of the world.

In fact, the Ptolemies and Cleopatra in Egypt were Greeks, as were the client kings in Turkey, etc. Paul was from Tarsus, in Turkey, which at the time was heavily Greek-speaking.

SNAP. . Indeed even versions of Alexander's name persist all the way to South Asia to this day, such as Iskander, Sikandar and of course Alexander in English

klazmon wrote:

NineOneFour wrote:

Animavore wrote:How did it end up happening that the Bible NT was originally written in Greek?

Blame Alexander the Great.

No, really.

Alexander spoke Greek and the territory he conquered became Greek-speakers, which included modern Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran. When he died, his three main Greek generals split the empire, but each third remained Greek-speaking.

The Romans had only taken over Turkey and Palestine within a generation or so and had not had time to Latinize the area. Most educated people (literates) spoke and wrote Greek in that area of the world.

In fact, the Ptolemies and Cleopatra in Egypt were Greeks, as were the client kings in Turkey, etc. Paul was from Tarsus, in Turkey, which at the time was heavily Greek-speaking.

SNAP. . Indeed even versions of Alexander's name persist all the way to South Asia to this day, such as Iskander, Sikandar and of course Alexander in English

Yes, but so does the man who came after him, Julius Caesar. Kaiser...Czar....Shah....

NineOneFour wrote:

klazmon wrote:

NineOneFour wrote:


Blame Alexander the Great.

No, really.

Alexander spoke Greek and the territory he conquered became Greek-speakers, which included modern Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran. When he died, his three main Greek generals split the empire, but each third remained Greek-speaking.

The Romans had only taken over Turkey and Palestine within a generation or so and had not had time to Latinize the area. Most educated people (literates) spoke and wrote Greek in that area of the world.

In fact, the Ptolemies and Cleopatra in Egypt were Greeks, as were the client kings in Turkey, etc. Paul was from Tarsus, in Turkey, which at the time was heavily Greek-speaking.

SNAP. . Indeed even versions of Alexander's name persist all the way to South Asia to this day, such as Iskander, Sikandar and of course Alexander in English

Yes, but so does the man who came after him, Julius Caesar. Kaiser...Czar....Shah....

True, although that name didn't make it to the subcontinent as far as I know.

NineOneFour wrote:
Yes, but so does the man who came after him, Julius Caesar. Kaiser...Czar....Shah....

Really? The first two, of course, but I would think "shah" a totally unrelated Persian word.

Hnau von Thulcandra wrote:

NineOneFour wrote:
Yes, but so does the man who came after him, Julius Caesar. Kaiser...Czar....Shah....

Really? The first two, of course, but I would think "shah" a totally unrelated Persian word.

Totally unrelated. The rulers of Persia called themselves "shah" from the Achaemenid Dynasty (504-330 BC) onwards, while the earliest mention of the Julii (Caesar's ancestors) is Gaius Julius Iulus, who was consul in 489 BC and was a long way from Persia. The first mention of the Caesarian branch of the Julii that I know of was Numerius Julius Caesar, born sometime before 300 BC.

Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the former Empire of Alexander, as others have noted already. It remained the main language of the eastern half of the Roman Empire for its entire history - Latin never took hold there apart from in Dacia, which was conquered late and colonised by Latin-speaking veterans (which is why Romania has its name and why it speaks a Romance, Latin-derived language to this day). Greek was also the language of serious learning and everyone with any pretentions to scholarship, either in the eastern or western Empire spoke and read it. That's why the gospels were in Greek.

One of the many things that Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ got wrong was depicting the soldiers who crucified Jesus as Latin-speaking Roman legionaries. Pontius Pilatus wasn't high ranking enough to command a legion and there were no legions posted in Judea or Galilee at that time anyway. His troops were Syrian auxiliaries and they would have spoken Greek, not Latin (though Pilatus and his officers would have spoken both). It's pretty likely Jesus spoke at least some Greek as well as Hebrew and his native Aramaic.

When I was still a member of the Church, I used to prefer the New International Version and read it daily. Oddly, these days, on the occasions when I refer to a Bible I use a Revised Standard Version. It isn't as readable, or as clear, nor is it the King James, but it gives me a bit of distance from the past.

klazmon wrote:

NineOneFour wrote:

klazmon wrote:

SNAP. . Indeed even versions of Alexander's name persist all the way to South Asia to this day, such as Iskander, Sikandar and of course Alexander in English

Yes, but so does the man who came after him, Julius Caesar. Kaiser...Czar....Shah....

True, although that name didn't make it to the subcontinent as far as I know.

No, probably not, but Caesar also started far westward of Alexander, too.

Hnau von Thulcandra wrote:

NineOneFour wrote:
Yes, but so does the man who came after him, Julius Caesar. Kaiser...Czar....Shah....

Really? The first two, of course, but I would think "shah" a totally unrelated Persian word.

I cannot find evidence of my prior claim, so for now, I will withdraw it.

In Urdu, Caesar is rendered Qaysar, and in Persian, Ghaysar.

Doesn't seem to have entered India, though, true.