Re: Languages in Gibson's Passion

On Tuesday, March 9, 2004, at 06:19 PM, Joe wrote:

> Ray Brown wrote:
>
>> On Monday, March 8, 2004, at 06:16 AM, John L. Leland wrote:
[snip]
>>> 2) Pilate addressed the Jewish crowd in fluent Aramaic (which I doubt
>>> very
>>> much he bothered to learn)
>>
>>
>> I doubt very much either. It wasn't a normal habit of the Romans, with
>> the
>> sole exception of Greek. Indeed, educated Romans of this period were
>> normally more or less bilingual in Greek & Latin, and Pilate certainly
>> would've been.
>>
>>
> Just a thought, John 19:19 says that Pilate wrote the inscription above
> Jesus.  I'm sure that could be interpreted that he had it written, but
> otherwise, it would indicate that he knew Aramaic.
An interesting point, actually.  Yes Ch.19, verse 19 is quite explicit
that Pilate wrote the placard to go on the cross:
'egrapsen de kai titlon ho Pilatos....'

It would IMO be wrong to interpret it that he had it written (for him) as
that would require the middle voice in Greek, not the active. Also verse
22 I think is pretty conclusive:
'ho gegrapha, gegrapha' - What I have written, I have written.

Again both verbs are active, not middle; i.e. it's not 'What I have had
written, I have had written'. Pilate is taking personal responsibility.

Strictly, however, the original text of verse 9 quotes only the Greek
words as what Pilate wrote:
Ie:sous Nazo:raios ho basileus to:n Ioudaio:n

When in verse 20 the three languages are mentioned, the verb is passive:
'e:n gegrammenon hebraïsti, rho:maïsti, helle:nisti' - it had been written
in Hebrew (Aramaic), in Latin, in Greek.'

One could argue, therefore, that Pilate was personally responsible for the
original Greek wording, and that the Latin & Aramaic translations were
written by another/others. Of course Pilate could manage the Latin also,
but having worded the 'titlos', an educated slave could finished the job
off.  We just don't know.

If we accept the historicity of John's account (and I do), then it's quite
clear that Pilate took full responsibility for what was written and
certainly wrote the Greek text. We cannot, I think, go further and say
that this shows Pilate could write Aramaic.

But, yes - an interesting point.

Ray
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