Aramaic, Greek and Latin: a linguistic history of Christmas
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What connects Christmas, Christianity and languages? In this video I discuss the origins of Christianity, its global spread, and the languages spoken during its early days.
⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
0:05 Christmas today
0:30 Why talk about Christmas
1:26 Languages of the Ancient Middle East
4:06 Christmas message from Steve
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Could you maybe add Biblical Hebrew and / or Ancient Greek to LingQ? Please, that would be suuuper helpful!
I HAVE BEEN COMMENTING ON MANY POLYGLOT VIDEOS INCLUDING STEVE KAUFMAN'S ABOUT TOTAL FAILURE OF CONVENTIONAL METHOD, STORYTELLING AND LINGQ IN GETTING ME TO EVEN BE BASICALLY CONVERSATIONALLY FLUENT. I HAVE WRITTEN TO LINGQ MANY TIMES. I WAS SENT SUGGESTIONS COVERING THREE PAGES. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO FIRST AND WHAT TO EXACTLY DO AFTER ALL THE 13 YEARS OF FAILURE. I HAVE MESSAGES ON THE PHONE OF LINGQ HEADQUARTERS. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? I WAS PROMISED AFTER THREE MONTHS WHEN DOING LINGQ I WOULD START TO UNDERSTAND. I WAS MORE THAN DEDICATED EVERY DAY. NOTHING HAPPENED. IT FAILED. THEN AFTER COMPLAINING I WAS SENT THE THREE PAGES THAT ARE CONFUSING. WHAT IS WRONG? -- GEORGE DECARLO 908-342-1275
Happy Holidays Steve!
Salam Aleikum Language Simp
And Happy Holidays to you. I really enjoyed our chat together even if a little too serious for your fans!
It was the greatest collab ever! @@Thelinguist
@@LanguageSimp Μάθε ελληνικά Λάνγκουατζ Σιμπ
@@LanguageSimpHappy holidays to Language Simp and Mr. Kaufmann!
Happy Christmas everybody
Merry Christmans for everybody! Feliz Natal para todos! From Brazil!
Very interesting. Merry Christmas.
Merry christmas from Brazil❤
Hay Steve marry Christmas 🎄 happy 2024 look forward to seeing you on ur channel in 2024 wishing you health and happiness thank you
Shlom ! Merry Christmas from Hongkong !
EXCELLENT EXPLICATION
ܥܐܕܐ ܕܡܘܠܕܐ ܒܪܝܟܐ!!! ❤️🙏🏻 Merry Christmas ❤️🙏🏻
Υπέροχο βίντεο
Steven, hvala in vse dobro v prazničnih dneh in v Novem letu! Thank you for this fascinating video, especially for the inspiration that you are to us for learning languages, even at a mature age. Best wishes to you and your family for the holidays and 2024 - from Motovun, Istria :).
My favorite teacher
Feliz Natal, do Brasil!🎉
Muchas gracias por esta excelente lección.
Καλά Χριστούγεννα Στέφανε!
Could you maybe add Biblical Hebrew and / or Ancient Greek to LingQ? Please, that would be suuuper helpful!
Thank you Dr Steve may God bless you
Merry Christmas Steve, thank you for everything.
Very beautiful analogy on languages, religions, and the holidays Steven!
Merry Christmas, Steve. Thank you for all your effort, the good humoured delivery and the clarity with which you seek to spread knowledge about language acquisition. Even when I disagree with you - and I certainly don't believe that the major religions express universal values - I feel that I am addressing someone of great decency and insight. To all your crew, may I wish the best for this festive season.
Thanks for the kind message.
I love these kind of stories
Hey Steve, I just watched your video and I must say that it was really informative and well-made. I was wondering if I could help you edit your highly engaging thumbnails which will help your video to reach to a wider audience .
You work for 40yrs to have $1m in your retirement, Meanwhile some people are putting just $10k in a meme coin for just few months sometimes lesser and now they are multi millionaires. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life✊🏻❤️
Only God knows how much grateful i am. After so much struggles I now own a new house and my family is happy once again everything is finally falling into place! I can't thank you enough Mrs Angela Mae McClain!
Wow...I know her too she is a licensed broker and a FINRA agent she is popular in US and Canada she is really amazing woman with good skills and experience.
Please how can I contact her? I'd love to see for myself
You'll surely reach her
Her Whats'akp 👇
Greetings from Greece!!! Χαιρετισμούς από την Ελλάδα!
Merry X-mas! What a great video.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas 💕🌈🎶🎉🎉🎉
I think that your mindset is whole tolerance because of your passion for language lerning. It teach us, either we are diferferent or we are equally. All religions strives love o peace !I think!.
Merry Christmas from Jerusalem 🎄🫶
חגא טבא! (Happy holidays in aramaic)
trees were a near eastern tradition
what are your sources about apostles speaking greek? my understanding is they did not, open to new info of course.
The entire New Testament was written in Greek
the consensus is that the new testament was not written by the apostles
That is not the consensus. That is a hypothesis by a minority group with weak evidence.
God bless you sir, have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. “…behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Matthew 1:20-23 KJV
Ἡ δασεῖα εἶναι ἀκαταμάχητη! Δυστυχῶς, κατήργησαν τὴν διδασκαλίαν της ἐν ἔτει 1982.
Hey Steve! Can we make requests for new languages to be introduced to LingQ? I am looking forward to seeing Igbo, Yoruba, & Swahili on the platform.
We have Swahili. We have no immediate plans to introduce other African languages, but maybe in the future.
Should be noted Aramaic was not the original language of the Assyria and Babylon, Akkadian was. Aramaic was a lingua franca of the region, presumably because it was native to the areas that bridged Mesopotamia and the Levant, and it eventually became the court language of the Neo-Assyrian empire before becoming the vernacular stretching from Mesopotamia to Judea.
Merry Christmas, Steve! I really love Christmas although I don't live in a Christian family. The spirit is more important. Thank you for your positive message🤍 Would you consider adding Azerbaijani to LingQ?
Thanks for the kind message. We have Turkish. If there is interests in Azerbaijani and someone creates content including the 60 mini-stories we would consider it.
@@ThelinguistHow can we apply for it?
Herod was not of Nabataen descent he was edomes and while the Nabataens were arabic tribes that settled in that area the edomes were were there for years until they assimilated into Judea and the jews
Where there christians at the time of Jesus
Steve, can you help me? I`m polyglot but my problem is that I speak all languages at once, mixing words etc. How can I use only one language?
There's no such thing as a "universal value" because not everyone agrees on any particular moral issue. Moreover, the idea that morality is decided by people means morality is subjective rather than objective, and if that's the case then we can't say anything is truly right or truly wrong. Therefore in order for there to be objective morality there must be an authority which is transcendent, infallible and immutable - that authority is God. Specifically, the God of the Bible. I'd like to invite you, Steve, and any others reading this comment to hear the gospel. Simply watch "The Bible Way To Heaven" video by Pastor Roger Jimenez. Merry Christmas!
Well when evaluating religions, the factor of whether or not the religions are true is essential to evaluate. The Bible, for example teaches that those who follow these good "universal values" but have not repented of their sin are not saved and are going to hell. Thus, we must ask ourselves, "Is the Bible true in its teaching?" If so, it is of eternal importance truly repent and express a desire to God of wanting Him to change your heart so that you no longer want the things that are contrary to His will. That's what saves you, according to the Bible. You can't just pull out some moral principles you think are nice and continue living life for yourself, which any actions done for others be done out of a selfish desire for them to appreciate you or for you to feel good about yourself. To return to my main point, investigate the truth of the Bible. If it's fake, ignore it. If it's true, everything changes and action must be taken upon it.
@@joshuahines5770 The Bible does not teach that you have to "repent of your sins" to be saved. In fact, the phrase "repent of your sins" isn't even found in the Bible a single time. Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ, not of works. Turning from sins to be saved is a works-based false gospel. It's impossible for us to turn from all our sins because we all sin every day. People are confused about repentance today. Whenever the Bible uses the word "repent" in the context of salvation it's talking about turning from unbelief to belief. For example in Mark 1:15 "And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."
Steve I have a question. You speak a lot on comprehensible input and the effectiveness of reading but many African languages in sub-Saharan Africa have more of an oral literature a lot of it isn't written down so little to no material to read. What would you suggest in this instance as someone who wants to learn a language from this region but nothing to read.
Lots of listening and speaking.
can you speak kurdish ?
But there's a Christmas tree on the Lebanese flag...
It’s called cedar of Lebanon😅 and it’s native to Syria and Lebanon
Enjoy the joke. It is the country in the region with the most Christians
Bro. It’s a cedar tree.
@@ronshlomi582 there are types of cedar trees …
Стив, учите латынь и древнегреческий с нами!
It's literally called "CHRISTmas" I think people forget the importance of it...not just for Santa Claus and presents.. very interesting and different video. I think it would be interesting if you did more videos about others Holidays in other countries, and maybe religions.
just because it's called Christmas, it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ himself.... much like many "Christian holidays", such as Easter and Valentines, Christmas is pagan holiday to celebrate Winter solstice and its associated diety (depending on the region [celtic/norse/etc]
@Pfyzer Wrong on all counts.
@@Pfyzer it's literally the name bud. CHRISTmas.
Not called Christmas in Norway. Here it is Jul/Yule. We still have the tree and presents and songs all that. The core traditions and the date they were celebrated existed before christianity.
@@petterlangThe same in all Scandinavia pretty much, and in Finland as well.
Some misinformation here, there is no evidence within the text of the Gospels or anywhere else that the Apostles were Greek-speakers. These were salt of the earth, lower-class Aramaic speakers, and most likely illiterate, as suggested by e.g. Acts 4:13. Greek, on the other hand, was the language of a tiny educated elite in the land of Israel at the time. This misconception comes from the fact that the Gospels were written in Greek, and their authorship was attributed to some of the Apostles, but the texts of the Gospels themselves do not claim that, that is a much later tradition that was tacked on, and in fact academic Biblical scholarship nowadays is basically in unanimous consensus that the four Gospels were in fact not written by any of the Apostles.
It just means unlearned (which not unlikely refers to the scriptures in a jewish setting). There actually is evidence that they spoke Greek, especially given the fact it was the lingua franca back then. Jesus for example is recorded speaking with Pilate - one shouldn't believe Pilate was speaking Aramaic... Most likely - that actually happened in Greek.
@@BesserGlauben That’s pretty poor evidence to support the claim made in this video that “the Apostles were Greek-speakers” for a number of reasons. First, that’s only in reference to Jesus, not any of the Apostles. Second, that’s assuming that that interaction was a historical event in the first place; there is good reason to suspect that no such trial actually occurred, for example Philo was a contemporary and stated that Pilate ordered executions without any trial, and furthermore it is clear that the Gospels included the narrative of the Trial of Jesus for theological rather than historical purposes-this is most evident in John, the most pro-Roman Gospel, where this narrative is explicitly intended to exonerate Pilate. Third, even if such an interaction *did* occur it was fairly common practice in ancient texts to omit reference to translators or interpreters; for example in Homer one encounters Greeks and Trojans speaking directly to each other all the time, with no indication of any language barrier, even though historically there would have been.
@@ThatBernie I really like your response, well articulated. I'd say to definitely assune that "the Apostles were Greek speakers" is probably not the best way to phrase it. I'd say it's likely that they (or a significant number of them) were able to communicate in it at least. On the other hand, the claim that the apostles couldn't have been able to speak Greek is far-fetched as well. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Is it probable, that they did? I'd say yes. It's not like the lingua franca of a specific region is only spoken by the elite and other people cannot understand it. That wouldn't really classify as a real lingua franca then. But nice talking to you anyways :)
@@BesserGlauben Thank you as well for this intellectual discussion. But just to make a final rebuttal, logically inferring that the Apostles “probably” could communicate with a bit of Greek, because it was the lingua franca at the time, is not the same thing as positive evidence in favor of that claim-again, nowhere in the text of the Gospels or anywhere else in the NT do we see any positive evidence that supports them being able to speak Greek. The only reason to support that claim is in order to support the Apostolic authorship of the Gospels, which again has long been abandoned by critical scholars, because (a) the Gospels themselves were written anonymously (the earliest manuscripts lack titles, and the texts themselves make no claim of authorship), and (b) the level of Greek in the Gospels is highly sophisticated, suggesting that the authors were likely well-educated native Greek-speakers, which is not even close to the same thing as “probably” being able to get by with a little bit of Greek because it was the lingua franca at the time. Best, -Bernie
You should consult Tubingen Professor Martin Hengel on 'Judaism and Hellenism' (1974). Greek had been spoken in Palestine for over 360 years, since the time of Alexander the Great, and many Jews were highly Hellenised; this is in fact the background to the Maccabean war that began in 168 BC. Galilee was actually a mixed Jewish-Gentile area with a highly Hellenised culture close to Jewish areas. Functional bilingualism is more common than people in the monolingual west sometimes realise; think of modern Belgium or Switzerland, or even Canada.
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You wrote Aramaic wrong. It should be ארמיא, not ארמית. You wrote how Aramaic would be spelled in Hebrew, not actually Aramaic.
Very nice your all videos. Did you head about Tamil language. ? Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world
After the righteous campaign of Alexander the Great in the East, avenging the unjust and unprovoked attack of the Persians in Greece, but also his youthful curiosity to reach where the Cosmos "ends", his short journey from the land of the Jews enslaved by the Persians , left traces that were to last for centuries. How many days did Alexander pass through Judea? A week, a month? Of course he did not destroy Solomon's second Temple, and let the Jews practice their religion as they wished. The Jews welcomed him as a liberator from the Persians. He then went to Egypt, to get to know the Egyptians and their life, and then continued to pursue the Persian King in Iran until he reached Afghanistan and Pakistan, and stopped at the Indus River on the border of India. The city of Kandahar, has the name Alexandria, corrupted, and until today (2023), the Central Bank of Afghanistan, of the Taliban, has an ancient Greek coin as its emblem. Alexander died in Babylon two and a half centuries before Christ. However, the legacy he left to the Jews in particular remained. Many learned Greek. They began to perform their religious duties in the Greek language. It became so common for them to speak Greek, that they did not understand the Holy Jewish books in the language of their Fathers! And thus the translation of the 70 was born! Voluntary Hebrew translation of all the books of the Jewish religion into the Greek language, so that the Jewish people can pray in an understandable language. This translation of the 70 wise Jews of the library of Alexandria, in Hellenic, we Christians use as the Old Testament. Nothing happened by force, but by the gradual integration of Greek culture into the Jews, many years, 2.5 centuries from the death of Alexander. Alexander's land broke into many smaller kingdoms, after his death, and one of these kingdoms, the Syrian king with the Greek name Antiochus the Second, made the mistake one day of sacrificing pigs, in his pagan palace, and then offering the carcasses to the Jews. Although they were Hellenistic, this act was considered blasphemous and the Jews rebelled against Antiochus. They won and gained temporary autonomy, however, continuing their Greek culture, before being controlled once again by the Romans from Italy. The victory of the Jews against Antiochus is celebrated today by the Jews as Hanukkah.
The birth of Christ finds the land of the Jews, controlled by the Romans, with the Jewish King Herod, and the Roman commander Pilate one of them. With the majority Jewish population, and Jewish religion, speaking Greek, Aramaic, and very little Latin, for those who had contact with the Romans. So we come to the passage of the New Testament, where Jesus says, that in the eyes of the Father, there is no distinction between Greeks and Jews, free and slaves, men and women. And finally we understand what he means by the word Greeks. What business does this word have to suddenly appear in the foreground. We understand that he is not referring to Greeks from Greece, who perhaps did not even know of their existence, nor to pagan Greeks who had disappeared from Judea two centuries after the death of Alexander. But it clearly refers to Jews who speak Greek and Aramaic, and that God the Father makes no distinction between them. So this is the holiday of Hanukkah, this is the meaning of the Greek-speaking Jews in the preaching of the Savior, and this is the legacy left by the Greek Alexander the Great to the Jews. After having crucified Christ, the Apostles preached His Word to the world. The Jews rebelled against the Romans and the Romans in revenge destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple, rebuilt it "Roman" with new roads, called it Capitolina for mockery, which means small capital, and after searching and finding from the Hebrew books who they were the enemies the Jews hated the most, not the Egyptians, nor the Persians, nor the Greeks, they found the Philistines. And to mock the Jews they called their Land Palestine. The Jews were persecuted to the ends of Planet Earth. After the pagan Romans, came the Christian Romans, they found and built Christian monuments in the Land of the Jews. Little by little, Islamic Arabs also started to go up to Jerusalem. They defeated the Christian Romans, they built their own monument where the old Jewish Temple of Solomon was, and because the Roman province was called Palestine by both the pagans and the Christian Romans, 700 years later, the Arab settlers called themselves the Palestinians thing that is artificial, because they were Arabs who came from the south. Of course, after the Arab conquest, came the Turkish, Ottoman and English conquest, the Zion movement was created, for the creation of the State of Israel in 1947, and slowly we reached today, with some Arabs who want to control the Earth at any cost of the Jews, falsely calling themselves Palestinians and throwing rockets at the Jews. You know the sequel. Since you can read, you can remember what happened in the last three months. Happy Holidays to everyone. Peace, Health and Happiness throughout the World. From Greece, on December 26, 2023 at 14:37 Theodoros Tsarbopoulos.