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book of Hebrews: better from Greek, or Aramaic?
Could you elaborate on the basis/grounds for believing that "when Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles is writing, he was necessarily writing to them in Greek"? Was 1 Cor written: to Gentiles? in Greek? Is this entirely Greek?:
1 Corinthians 16:22
https://biblehub.com/texts/1_corinthians/16-22.htm
Westcott and Hort / {NA28 variants}
εἴ τις οὐ φιλεῖ τὸν κύριον, ἤτω ἀνάθεμα. Μαρὰν / μαρανα ἀθά / θα.
RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005
Εἴ τις οὐ φιλεῖ τὸν κύριον Ἰησοῦν χριστόν, ἤτω ἀνάθεμα. Μαρὰν ἀθά.

John 7:35 (AMP)
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/John%207:35
Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where does this Man intend to go that we will not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion [of Jews scattered and living] among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

What language(s) did the "sojourners of the dispersion": speak? read?
1 Peter 1:1-2 (YLT)
https://biblehub.com/1_peter/1-1.htm
https://biblehub.com/1_peter/1-2.htm
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the choice sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 according to a foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied!
1 Peter 1:1
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_peter/1-1.htm
To the strangers scattered throughout . . .--- Literally, _to the elect, sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus_. The persons for whom the Letter is destined are very clearly specified. In John 7:35 we have "the dispersion of the Greeks," where it clearly means "those of the dispersed Jews who live among the Greeks," so here "the dispersion of Pontus," or "the Pontine dispersion," will mean "those of, the dispersed Jews who live in Pontus." In James 1:1 the same word is used, and, in fact, it seems to have been the recognised name for all Jews who did not live in Palestine. The word rendered by "sojourners" means people who are resident for a time among strangers: it might, for instance, describe English people who have taken houses in Paris without becoming naturalised; and, as it is here in so close a connection with geographical words, it seems forced to interpret it metaphorically (as in 1Peter 2:11). Palestine, not Heaven, is the home tacitly contrasted; Pontus, not earth, is the place of sojourn. This, then, is clear, that the Apostle of the Circumcision is writing to those of the Circumcision. The addition of the words "the blood of Jesus Christ" is the only thing which shows that they are _Christian_ Jews.

Which if any of the categories of people mentioned here were: Gentiles? 'Jews'?:
Acts 2 (KJV)
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

Even if a text has high-quality Greek, that doesn't necessarily mean that it was originally composed in Greek: Josephus wrote in Aramaic, and had native Greek speakers polish his material that had been translated into Greek. What was Paul's native language? When Paul prepared written compositions, did he first write a copy in: his native language? a foreign tongue?

"the Diatessaron was widely used by early Syriac Christians" Agreed. It was composed by Tatian by A.D. 175 using the Peshitta, and was wildly popular among Syriac Christians. The Peshitta had been around for over 100 years before Tatian synthesized the Peshitta's 4 gospels into his Diatessaron.
"widely used by early Syriac Christians, and there would be no reason to do so if they had the completed gospels widely available" Writing material was valuable, and it took much time to copy the scriptures. Tatian's Diatessaron had 3/4ths of the gospels' text, and preparing a copy of the Diatessaron required only 3/4ths of the writing materials, and took only 3/4ths of the time to recopy, compared with making a copy of the complete 4 gospels. Plus it was more portable. Somebody took the time to translate the Diatessaron from Aramaic into Arabic around A.D. 900, despite there being 4 separate gospels readily available.
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RE: book of Hebrews: better from Greek, or Aramaic? - by DavidFord - 02-16-2020, 03:55 AM

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