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The Languages of Acts 2
#1
Shlama,


i'm firmly settled in Acts for the time being, and a thought struck me concerning the nations/peoples listed in Acts 2 who had come for the Festival of Weeks, and to whom the disciples were preaching the Good News in miraculous languages:


WHAT LANGUAGES WERE BEING SPOKEN??


here's my conclusion based on just a cursory scan (anyone who cares to clarify please do so):

Parthwaye? = Parthians ? spoke a Western Middle Iranian language

Madaye? = Medes ? spoke a similar Iranian language to the Parthians

Alanaye? = Elamites ? ancient Iranian language, distinct from others, though possibly related in some way to the Dravidian family (Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, etc.).

Beyth-Nahreeyn = Mesopotamia ? spoke Aramaic, Assyrian/Aramaic dialects

Yeehuwdaye? = Judea ? spoke Judean Aramaic dialect and Hebrew

Qapuwdqaye? = Cappadocia ? spoke a very isolated dialect of Greek

Pantaws = Pontus ? spoke a dialect of Greek

Aseeya = Asia ? likely the Southwestern Asian languages, being Semitic, Afroasiatic, and Indo-Iranian, and some Turkic languages ? this is a rather liberal guess here

Phruwgeeya = Phrygia ? spoke a language closely related to Greek

Pamphuwleeya = Pamphylia ? spoke an isolated dialect of Greek

Metzreyn = Egypt ? spoke Demotic Egyptian and Greek

Luwee = Libya ? spoke native Tamazight (Berber languages) and Greek

Rome ? spoke Latin / Greek ---- Jews & converts

Qreetee = Crete ? spoke a dialect of Greek

Arwaye? = Arabians ? spoke dialects of Aramaic and Pre-Classical Arabic, Thamudic, etc.


what i found interesting here that falls under the primacy topic is that the MAJORITY are Greek dialects, which would appear to be a somewhat important blow against those espousing that Greek was a standardly-heard language in/around Judea.

if Greek was so commonly heard and understood, why would those from the nations who were attending be amazed that these Galileans were speaking Greek + other languages?

of the 15 peoples represented above:

SEVEN spoke dialects of Greek

THREE spoke dialects of Aramaic

the remaining FIVE spoke various other languages


any thoughts???



Chayim b'Moshiach,
Jeremy
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Messages In This Thread
The Languages of Acts 2 - by Burning one - 11-22-2011, 04:32 AM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by distazo - 11-22-2011, 06:58 AM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by Paul Younan - 11-23-2011, 03:12 AM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by distazo - 11-23-2011, 03:33 PM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by Paul Younan - 11-23-2011, 08:39 PM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by distazo - 11-25-2011, 10:21 AM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by Burning one - 11-30-2011, 05:20 AM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by Burning one - 11-30-2011, 05:22 AM
Re: The Languages of Acts 2 - by Paul Younan - 12-01-2011, 03:20 AM

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