09-01-2004, 02:13 AM
Shlama Akhi Rob,
I, along with about 100,000 other Semites who attend the congregations of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. speak two languages.....and in my particular congregation we have Whites, Blacks, Filipinos and Hispanics.....and we not only receive church communication (in all forms including "epistles") in Aramaic, but they are read in Aramaic first at the pulpit and then translated orally, then finally in written form.
Sorry - but this is happening even today. You can't convince me that it didn't happen in the 1st-century, when it was even more necessary considering there was less media and technology available to help with translating it.
Besides, your logic makes no sense for Paul's epistle to the Romans - unless we are to believe that your Greek version is a translation from a Latin original?
Just how many languages was Paul able to write in effectively? Based on your geographical argument, we should expect that Paul wrote the book of Romans in Latin!
And what did the churches in Corinth and Rome have in common? - you guessed it, they were all started and led by Jews whose native language was Aramaic.
As for your comment about Gentiles - yes, there were Greek-only-speaking Gentiles in the churches he addressed. You also have to keep in mind that there is such a thing as an Aramaic-speaking Gentile. You are reading his words. And he lives in the West, too. And his predecessors lived in the same cities that those Jews who Paul wrote to lived. It's not as if the Jews were the only Semites who travelled to, or lived in, Corinth. There were Aramaic-speaking non-Jewish Gentiles in Rome, too. Read up on Tatian, while we are on the topic of the Diatesseron.
Was he not an Assyrian? Oh no! An Aramaic-speaking Gentile in Rome, and Paul was called to the Gentiles!
What a mess! <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->
Rob Wrote:Living in Gentile culture one would imagine that they spoke the local language, but likewise no early congregation was comprised of completely jews, otherwise Paul would not have been concerned with the Galatian church practicing Jewish customs while not being concerned with the Jerusalem church. Why else was he called the apostle to the Gentiles?
I, along with about 100,000 other Semites who attend the congregations of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. speak two languages.....and in my particular congregation we have Whites, Blacks, Filipinos and Hispanics.....and we not only receive church communication (in all forms including "epistles") in Aramaic, but they are read in Aramaic first at the pulpit and then translated orally, then finally in written form.
Sorry - but this is happening even today. You can't convince me that it didn't happen in the 1st-century, when it was even more necessary considering there was less media and technology available to help with translating it.
Besides, your logic makes no sense for Paul's epistle to the Romans - unless we are to believe that your Greek version is a translation from a Latin original?
Just how many languages was Paul able to write in effectively? Based on your geographical argument, we should expect that Paul wrote the book of Romans in Latin!
And what did the churches in Corinth and Rome have in common? - you guessed it, they were all started and led by Jews whose native language was Aramaic.
As for your comment about Gentiles - yes, there were Greek-only-speaking Gentiles in the churches he addressed. You also have to keep in mind that there is such a thing as an Aramaic-speaking Gentile. You are reading his words. And he lives in the West, too. And his predecessors lived in the same cities that those Jews who Paul wrote to lived. It's not as if the Jews were the only Semites who travelled to, or lived in, Corinth. There were Aramaic-speaking non-Jewish Gentiles in Rome, too. Read up on Tatian, while we are on the topic of the Diatesseron.
Was he not an Assyrian? Oh no! An Aramaic-speaking Gentile in Rome, and Paul was called to the Gentiles!
What a mess! <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->
+Shamasha Paul bar-Shimun de'Beth-Younan
![[Image: sig.jpg]](http://www.peshitta.org/images/sig.jpg)