Introduction
Across our series, a repeated pattern has emerged: empires change quickly; cultural infrastructure changes slowly. In Jesus’ world, Rome held political power, yet Greek remained the dominant public language of the eastern Mediterranean. That linguistic reality shaped how the gospel was written, circulated, translated, and ultimately institutionalised—first through Koine Greek, then through Latin (especially the Vulgate) in the West. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
1. Koine Greek: the “common language” of the eastern Roman world
After Alexander’s conquests, a more standardised “common” Greek—Koine—spread widely and became the shared language for administration, trade, and urban life across much of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Koine is regularly described as the form of Greek that became the everyday common tongue in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and it is closely associated with the language of the Septuagint and the New Testament. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Key implication: when Christianity began expanding beyond Judea into Greek-speaking cities, it already had a “ready-made” communication highway.
2. Judea’s multilingual reality: Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek
In our earlier discussions, we noted the practical division of language use:
- Aramaic as a major everyday spoken language among Jewish communities,
- Hebrew as a sacred/liturgical and scriptural language,
- Greek (Koine) as the major public language that connected Judea to wider imperial networks. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
This matters because it helps explain why the earliest Christian movement could remain rooted in Israel’s Scriptures while also communicating rapidly across non-Jewish, urban, Greek-speaking environments.
3. The Septuagint: Scripture already “translated outward”
Before the New Testament existed, there was already a major precedent for Scripture in Greek: the Septuagint, widely understood as a Greek translation of Hebrew Scriptures produced in a Hellenistic context and associated with Jewish communities where Greek had become widely used. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Britannica’s discussion of biblical “versions” highlights the Septuagint as a foundational Greek version and notes its significance for how Judaism and, later, Christianity interacted with the wider Greco-Roman world. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Key implication: the earliest Christian proclamation was not inventing “translation as mission”; it was building on an existing reality—Scripture already circulating in the dominant international language.
4. Why the New Testament was written in Greek
From a communications and governance perspective, writing the New Testament in Koine Greek made strategic sense:
- It was the most widely shared language across the eastern Mediterranean.
- It enabled texts to circulate among mixed audiences (Jewish diaspora and Gentiles) in major cities.
- It matched the language environment of many early Christian communities and travel corridors.
This is why Koine Greek is routinely identified as the language of the New Testament. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Link back to our political lens: the same imperial system that constrained Judea politically also supplied roads, city networks, and a shared language environment that facilitated rapid dissemination.
5. Latin in the West: from Old Latin to Jerome’s Vulgate
As Christianity expanded in the Latin-speaking West, Latin biblical texts became necessary. Early Latin translations (often grouped under Vetus Latina, “Old Latin”) circulated before Jerome. (University of Birmingham)
In the late fourth century, Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome (382) to create an authoritative Latin revision, and Jerome’s revised Latin Gospels appeared about 383—a key stage in the formation of what is known as the Vulgate. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Over time, the Vulgate increasingly displaced earlier Old Latin forms and became the dominant Latin Bible tradition in the Western Church, with the wider “Versions after the 4th century” discussion also highlighting how the Vulgate tradition interacted with earlier Latin forms and how scribal transmission affected the textual history. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Key implication: the West’s biblical “default” became Latin for centuries, shaping theology, liturgy, and institutional Christianity in Europe.
6. Textual transmission: Scripture preserved through copying, variation, and correction
Once texts spread widely, they were preserved primarily through hand-copied manuscripts. This created:
- a large manuscript tradition,
- inevitable copying variations,
- and, eventually, the rise of formal methods to evaluate textual evidence.
A classic scholarly account notes that the New Testament text was transmitted by Christian copyists and that the history of the text includes both preservation and variation—precisely why textual criticism became necessary as a discipline. (OUP Academic)
Balanced takeaway: transmission history is not a reason for cynicism; it is a reason for disciplined reading—recognising that God’s Word travelled through real communities using real technologies of writing, copying, and translation.
Contemporary and preaching applications
A. Secular (leadership and systems)
- Infrastructure matters as much as events. Empires rise and fall, but shared language networks can outlast regimes and re-shape history. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- Translation is power. Who controls the “standard text” (Greek in the East; Latin in the West) shapes institutions, education, and public theology. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
B. Biblical (how to read better)
- Read with language-awareness: the NT is Greek; many OT quotations come via Greek biblical tradition in early Christian usage. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- Distinguish “message” from “medium”: the gospel’s truth is stable, while the delivery medium (Greek manuscripts, Latin translations, vernacular renderings) develops historically. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
C. Spiritual (discipleship and humility)
- God speaks in the world’s common tongue. The choice of Koine Greek reflects accessibility: the kingdom message is not reserved for elites. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- Faithfulness includes careful handling. Transmission and translation call believers to reverence, learning, and integrity—not careless proof-texting. (OUP Academic)
Meditation prompt (5 minutes)
Read slowly: John 12:12–19 (the crowd, the signs, the public meaning). Then reflect:
- Where do I rely on power rather than clarity and truth?
- Where am I called to make the message understandable—not diluted, but translated into real life?
- What would it look like for my witness to be publicly intelligible yet spiritually faithful?
Close with a simple prayer:
“Lord, make my words truthful, my motives pure, and my life a faithful translation of Your kingdom.”
References (Harvard style)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (2025a) Koine Greek. (Accessed: 22 January 2026). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (2025b) Greek language: Koine and dialects. (Accessed: 22 January 2026). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (2025c) Septuagint. (Accessed: 22 January 2026). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (2025d) Biblical literature: Versions after the 4th century. (Accessed: 22 January 2026). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (2025e) Vulgate. (Accessed: 22 January 2026). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
- University of Oxford, Faculty of Theology and Religion (n.d.) Koine Greek: a brief introduction. (Accessed: 22 January 2026). (Oxford Theology Department)
- Houghton, H.A.G. (2023) Vetus Latina: The Old Latin Bible. University of Birmingham. (Accessed: 22 January 2026). (University of Birmingham)
- Birdsall, J.N. (2003) ‘The Transmission of the New Testament Text’, in The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research. Brill. (OUP Academic)
If you want Episode 10 to follow naturally from here, the most coherent next step is: “From Empire to Christendom: how Latin Christianity shaped medieval politics and preaching” (bridging directly into your Rome → Christianity → Europe thread).