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Although we are used to reading the Bible in the English language, that was not the original language in which the Bible was written.

Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the language of ancient Israel. Hebrew has a different alphabet from ours consisting of 22 letters. It is also written from right to left. The following passage is from the book of Genesis chapter 1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.."
Section of Hebrew Bible from Genesis Chapter 1

Some small sections of the book of Daniel and Ezra are written in a language called Aramaic. In the time of Jesus, it was the everyday language of Palestine - Jesus would have used it.

The New Testament was written in Greek. Greek was a language spoken all over the world of the Roman Empire in the first century. Here is the beginning of Matthew's Gospel in Greek:

Βιβλος γενεσεως 'Ιησου Χριστου, υιου Δαβιδ, υιου Αβρααμ.


Look up Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 to find out what it means.
However, in ancient documents the Greek would have been written in capital letters without any spaces between the words. This made it much more difficult to read:

ΒΙΒΛΟCΓΕΝΕCΕΩCΙΗCΟΥΧΡΙCΤΟΥΥΙΟΥΔΑΒΙΔΥΙΟΥΑΒΡΑΑΜ


Graham Jones
Copyright © G. Jones 2004
Homepage: http://www.bible.smartemail.co.uk