Most of the Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. Though there are portions written in Aramaic, which was the language of the Babylonians who captured Israel and carried them into exile. It would have been easy for those growing up during the exile years, to adopt Aramaic which is why we have manuscripts from this time period in Aramaic.  

The New Testament was first written in Greek, although it also contains a very few instances of Aramaic, which was the language spoke in Israel during the time of Jesus. While Aramaic was spoken in Israel, Greek was the commoners’ language as well as the trade language. God used this particular language so His Word could quickly spread to the ancient world.

You may also hear the term “Septuagint”, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Most Gentiles would not have the ability to read biblical Hebrew, so the Hebrew manuscripts were translated into Greek so more people could access Scripture.

As with any language, there are many phrases, words, or colloquial phrases that don’t directly translate into our own modern language. We must remember we are spanning thousands of years and enormous growth and evolution of language between the ancient texts of the Old and New Testaments and our own modern age.

Teams who create our modern translations study from the original words preserved from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. This is astounding!

Translations vary slightly for a few important reasons like words potentially carrying slightly different meanings in the original. Some translations, like the King James Version, were translated from manuscripts that were farther removed from the dating of Jesus and the early church than some of our more modern translations. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, we realized these “new” discoveries actually were much “older” than the ones we already had, which allowed experts to go back even closer to the time of Jesus in order to capture the most accurate wording. Still, the instances of differences between the versions of accurate Bible translations are extremely minimal, pointing to the astonishing reality that God has faithfully preserved His Word and His message through the timeline of history.