Latin and the Christian Greek Scriptures

TODAY Latin is a dead language. However, there was a time when it was a vital, living language. Due to the conquests of Imperial Rome it was spoken not only in all parts of Italy but also in Gaul (France), Spain and northern Africa as well as being the official language in all of Rome’s dominions.

History records some four general periods of Latin literature. The first dated from the pre literary or prehistoric beginnings of Latin to 240 B.C.E. The second, the preclassical, lasted from then until about 80 B.C.E. The third, which many divide into two parts, lasted from 80 B.C.E. to 14 C.E. and is known as the Golden Classical Period. The fourth, the “Silver” period, lasted from 14 C.E. to 130 C.E. In the succeeding centuries Latin gradually declined, becoming fragmented into the various Romance languages, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, while it itself became a dead language.

In addition to its literary and political lives, Latin also had a religious life. In the last half of the second century C.E. the religious powers of Rome began to have Latin replace Greek as the language of the Roman bishopric.a After some seventeen centuries Vatican Council II has allowed a return to the local vernacular in the saying of the mass.

For centuries Latin, though declining in use among the common people, was not only the official language of the Church of Rome but also of all culture (together with Greek), ever so many learned writers using Latin, including such notable figures as Martin Luther and Sir Isaac Newton. The Latin of classical literature preserved until our day was the style used by the learned and elite classes, there having been a common or everyday Latin even as there was for a time a koiné Greek. Doctors, pharmacists and botanists still use Latin in their professions.

Most European languages got their alphabet from the Latin, which, in turn, got it from the Greeks. One-half of the words of the English language have their origin in Latin.

Since Latin was the language of imperial Rome and hence the official language of Palestine at the time of Christ, it is not surprising to find some Latinisms in the Christian Greek Scriptures. The word “Latin” itself occurs but once in modern Bible translations, at John 19:20, where we are told that the inscription placed above Jesus on the torture stake was also written in Latin.

Latinisms are found mostly in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, Mark having more than any other Bible writer; this lends credence to the position that he wrote his Gospel in Rome and for Romans. The apostle Paul, penman of fourteen of the twenty-seven books of the Christian Greek Scriptures, made little use of Latinisms and none occur in the Greek Septuagint Version of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Latin in the Christian Greek Scriptures occurs in various forms. Thus there are more than forty proper Latin names of persons and places found in them, such as Aquila, Luke, Mark, Paul, Caesarea and Tiberias. There are also some thirty words of military, judicial, monetary and domestic nature found in them, such as centurio (army officer); colonia (colony); denarius (“penny”); speculator (bodyguardsman); titulus (title) and sicarius (assassin).

There are also certain Latin expressions or idioms that appear in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Among these are “wishing to satisfy the crowd” (Mark 15:15), “you must see to that” (Matt. 27:4), and “taking sufficient security.”​—Acts 17:9.

Then, again, there are certain adjectives in the Christian Greek Scriptures that, according to the Greek authority Robertson,b are formed after the Latin rather than after the Greek manner. Among these are Herodianoi (Mark 3:6); Christianoi (Acts 26:28) and Philippianoi.​—Phil. 4:15.

The appearance of Latinisms in the Christian Greek Scriptures is of more than academic interest to Bible lovers. It is in keeping with what the Bible shows about Palestine’s being occupied by Rome in the days of Christ. Further, since these Latinisms are found in the best Greek writings of the same period, it argues that the Christian Greek Scriptures were indeed written during the times they tell about. This fact, therefore, further testifies to the authenticity of the Christian Greek Scriptures.

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