Hughson T. Ong, «An Evaluation of the Aramaic Greek Language Criteria in Historical Jesus Research: a Sociolinguistic Study of Mark 14,32-65.», Vol. 25 (2012) 37-55
Did Jesus ever speak in Greek? This is the question I have sought to answer in this paper. Using M. Casey’s Aramaic and S.E. Porter’s Greek hypotheses as my starting point, I attempt to show based on sociolinguistic principles that Jesus must have been fluent and would have used Greek and Aramaic in his daily conversation with various audiences in different linguistic situations and contexts. Specifically, I show that the sociolinguistic situation in the three chronological episodes of Mark 14,32-65 necessitates a code-switch on Jesus’ part by virtue of his multilingual environment.
An Evaluation of the Aramaic and Greek Language Criteria... 55
Vv. 35-36 (cf. Jesus and the Place 3: A stone’s Jesus’ plea to his Jesus’ use of αββα (cf.
Luke 22,41; Matt Father throw away from Abba Father to take Mattthew’s use of πατήρ
26,39) Place 2 away his sorrow μου)
Vv. 37-38 (cf. Jesus and Simon Place 2a (perhaps Command to Simon
Matt 26,40) Peter (but he came only at the spot to stay awake and
to the disciples) where Simon was) pray
V. 39 Jesus and the Place 3 Jesus’ plea to the
Father Father to take away
his sorrow
V. 40 (cf. Matt The Eleven and Place 2 The disciples unable
26,43) Jesus to respond to Jesus
Vv. 41-42 (cf. The Eleven and Place 2 Jesus’ reprimand of Jesus’ (first) pronouncement
Luke 22,45-46; Jesus their slumber and of his social identity to his
Matt 26,45-46) (first) pronounce- disciples
ment of the betrayal
of the “Son of Man”
to his disciples
MARK 14,43-51
Vv. 43-46 (cf. The Eleven and Place 2 Judas’s kiss and Judas’s sudden arrival with
Luke 22,47-49; Jesus; the arrival Rabbi address; The a crowd and his use of ῥαββί
Matt 26,47-50) of Judas and the betrayal and arrest to address Jesus; Jesus’
crowd of Jesus by Judas and address to Judas as “Judas”
the crowd or “Friend”
Vv. 47-51 (cf. The Eleven, Jesus, Place 2 Jesus’ (first) defense Jesus (second) pronounce-
Matt 26,53-54) Judas and the of his arrest and (sec- ment of the Scripture’s
Crowd ond) pronouncement fulfillment to the crowd
of the fulfillment of
Scripture to his disci-
ples and the crowd
MARK 14:53–65
Vv. 53-65 The arresting The Sanhedrin Jesus’ compulsion to The appearance before the
crowd, high priest, admit as the Christ; Sanhedrin; Jesus’ silence
chief priests, elders Jesus’ initial silence and (third and explicit)
and scribes, false and eventual admit- pronouncement of his social
witnesses; Peter tance through the identity to all the people in
and the guards phrase “I am” and his the Sanhedrin
(third) pronounce-
ment of the “Son of
Man” sitting at the
right hand of God
and coming with the
clouds
Hughson T. ONG
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