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The New Testament, especially the gospels, are a mess of these. It seems there were a lot of languages floating around in Jesus' culture. The Old Testament is in Hebrew and Greek, the main inhabitants speak Aramaic, but the occupying Romans speak Latin, and some of the scholars will still use Greek... ah, the confusion! So, I just wanted to give some fun facts connected with this subject that rather interested me. And, you know, help you understand stuff you didn't even know you were confused by.
>At Jesus' crucifixion, Pilate fixed to His cross a sign that said: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." The Apostle John tells us the sign was written in "Aramaic, Latin, and Greek" (John 19:20), so everyone who passed could read it.
>I had never quite understood where the word "Calvary" came from. The Bible says Jesus died on the hill of Golgotha, called the place of the Skull: why did people keep calling it Calvary? I finally learned the answer two weeks ago: there are three translations of the word "skull": Golgotha is the Aramaic. In Latin, it's "cerebrum" (where we get our words, "cerebrum" and "cranium"). And calvary is "skull" in Greek. Mystery solved!
>Almost all of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (there were a few bits and pieces in Aramaic). As time progressed, it was translated into Greek -- this Greek translation is called the Septuagint. It was this new translation that contained the Apocryphal books, which I won't explain just here. After Christ, the Old Testament was also translated into Latin, largely by St. Jerome. This translation is called the Vulgate.
By the way, the youth Sunday school at my church is now going through the history of the Old Testament (our leader says we still won't be done by the time the youngest of us -- that's me -- graduates from highschool!). Supposedly one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it, so I'll probably be posting anything interesting I learn up here. (:
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