Biblical Languages is the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages in which the canonical Scriptures principally survive, together with ancient versions essential to their study.
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
Most of the Old Testament is written in Biblical Hebrew, with Aramaic sections especially in Daniel and Ezra. The New Testament is written in Koine Greek. Several deuterocanonical books survive wholly or principally in Greek, while discoveries have also recovered Hebrew or Aramaic witnesses to works such as Sirach and Tobit.[1]
The languages have their own idioms, wordplay, semantic ranges, and literary conventions. No translation can reproduce every feature, so serious exegesis often compares the original-language forms and ancient versions.[2]
Ancient versions
The Septuagint, Old Latin, Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta, Coptic versions, and other translations are witnesses both to interpretation and to earlier textual forms. Their authority and usefulness differ according to context; none makes philological work on the other witnesses unnecessary.
Pius XII explicitly encouraged Catholic scholars to master biblical and related ancient languages. This scholarly discipline serves, rather than competes with, the Church's reception of Scripture.
References
- 1.Dei Verbum — Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation
- 2.Divino afflante Spiritu — Pius XII on original languages, literary forms, ancient versions, and textual criticism