Aramaic and The Church Fathers

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Continuing on from a number of recent lessons where we looked at Aramaic throughout the time of Jesus in the first century A.D. in Israel, in this lesson we continue our studies by looking at the early historians - the Church Fathers. We see what they had to say about the language in which the New Testament was first given.

In what may surprise many, we see that Eusebius of Caesarea, a renowned historian who recorded much of the history of early Christianity, clearly states that the early books of the New Testament, including the Gospels and Paul's epistles, were written in Syriac (Aramaic). Eusebius also records communication between Jesus, the disciples of Jesus, and King Abgarus of Edessa - also in Syriac. And Eusebius says that many others of those early writings were also in Syriac, but later translated into Greek.

For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, Eusebius is providing direct, plain, evidence, that the New Testament writings (and many other writings at the time) were first written in Syriac (Aramaic) and then translated into Greek for a wider audience. We shall examine that translation evidence more closely in our series on the Peshitta New Testament.

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