What languages did Jesus speak? As a young believer I was quickly turned on to the idea of learning some things about the &quot;original languages&quot; of the Bible.  After all, how could you understand John 21:15-17 without understanding the difference between &quot;agape&quot; love and &quot;phileo&quot; love?  Jesus was using specific words for a specific reason, right?  That's pretty basic sermon stock right there.
Shortly after my conversion I was talking with a Mormon friend of mine, and suggesting that we need to look at the Greek in certain cases to understand exactly what was meant by certain phrases in Scripture.  He looked at me with a strange look and asked why I thought the original language was Greek, since Jesus spoke Latin (or Aramaic... or something like that.)  This was news to me!
To be honest, it is a bit hard for me to accept that the Hebrews wouldn't have spoken Hebrew... given that their entire culture was built around Hebrew Scriptures.
Anyway, can someone sort all of this out for me?  Did Jesus speak Latin? ... or Greek? ... or Hebrew? ... or something else?
Also, please explain how we know what languages He spoke.
At the time of Jesus, and even for many centuries before, Aramaic was the vernacular or common everyday language. The Tanakh is mostly in Hebrew (in particular, the Torah) but there are a few Aramaic sections - notably, in Daniel. Hebrew was therefore the "high" language of religion but Aramaic was the "low" language of normal life. (Hellenized Jews would also have spoken Greek. The Roman occupiers, also being Hellenized, would have mostly used Greek, with a bit of Latin.)

In just the same way, Aramaic was the common language of the neo-Assyrian empire1, while they simultaneously maintained Akkadian as their "high" language. The neo-Babylonians2 followed the same pattern: people spoke Aramaic in the marketplace but used Akkadian, or even Sumerian, for  formal purposes. Koine (common) Greek is distinct from literary Greek, and vulgar Latin from classical Latin. You can also think of European scholars until  recently using Latin as a common written language, while speaking their own English/French/German/etc. in the street.

As far as the languages Jesus knew, we have the following evidence:


In the context of where Jesus grew up, he would undoubtedly have known Aramaic as the default language. Some well-known phrases in the gospels have Jesus explicitly speaking Aramaic, like Eli, eli, lama sabachthani (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34); racha in the Sermon on the Mount, etc. Given that the majority of the people he interacted with would have spoken Aramaic as their first language, it's plausible that he himself spoke Aramaic most of the time.
Luke's gospel also demonstrates knowledge of Hebrew: Jesus reads from the Torah scroll (4:16-20) and even as a child could discuss religious matters with the teachers at the Temple, also probably in Hebrew (2:46-47). The Samaritan woman (John 4) would have spoken Hebrew rather than Aramaic.
There are several occasions when Jesus talks with Romans, including Pilate. These conversations would have taken place in Greek, the customary language of the eastern Empire, rather than Latin; Aramaic is possible instead if the Romans would stoop to it.


So a definite yes to Aramaic and Hebrew, with Aramaic being his first language, and a maybe-to-yes for Greek. Of course, this excludes any languages that he might have been able to use by miraculous means.


1. The Neo-Assyrian Empire had a run of about 300 years of dominance over the Near East, ending about 612BC with the fall of their capital, Nineveh (the place that Jonah really didn't want to go). Their hobbies included coming down like the wolf on the fold, making sculptures of winged bulls, and ruling over their neighbours. They gained considerable prestige from the conquest of Babylon (and failed to conquer Jerusalem) but...
2. ...the Neo-Babylonian Empire overthrew them. This empire didn't have much to do with the original Babylonians apart from being based in the same city; the leadership were all ex-Assyrian. That's why they tried to legitimize themselves by copious use of Sumerian, and giving themselves Babylonian-sounding names. The most famous of their kings is Nebuchadnezzar, who appears in the book of Daniel.