In New Testament times copies of the Old Testament books were available in the synagogues in Hebrew but copies of the Septuagint translation of the books of the Old Testament into Greek were also available. Although the Greek Empire had now been succeeded by the Roman Empire, the language of the educated for official purposes was still Greek. The language of the Jewish synagogue was Hebrew but the language of the home and the street was Aramaic (or a mixture of Aramaic and Latin).

On one occasion when Paul had been arrested he was about to be taken into the Roman barracks by the soldiers and he said to the commander, ‘May I say something to you?’ The commander immediately replied, ‘Do you speak Greek?’ He thought that Paul was an Egyptian terrorist that had started a revolt sometime earlier. Paul asked permission to address the crowd, and he stood on the steps and

‘When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic: “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defence”. When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet’
[Acts 21.37–40; 22.1,2 NIV].

The use of both Greek and Hebrew is very helpful to our understanding of the Old Testament. When quotations are made from the Old Testament by the New Testament writers, because the New Testament was written in Greek, it is usually the Septuagint Old Testament that is quoted.

Luke tells us that Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he was given the roll of Isaiah to read. He found chapter 61 and read:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted’
[Luke 4.18].

Jesus would have been given the roll written in Hebrew but because Luke is writing in Greek, he makes the quotation from the Greek Septuagint version. If we compare this with Isaiah chapter 61 in our Old Testament, we read,

‘The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek’
[Isaiah 61.1].

You may have noticed that the New Testament (NT) reading from Luke has the word ‘gospel’ whereas the Old Testament rendering is ‘good tidings’ (or good news). The difference is because Jesus is quoting from the OT (Old Testament) book of Isaiah. Although we read both OT and NT in English, the quotation in Luke has been translated twice: from Hebrew to Greek to English. However, this reminds us that the meaning of ‘gospel’ is ‘good news’ and if you look at a translation into more modern English like the NIV (New International Version), that is exactly what it says,

‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor’
[Luke 4.18 NIV].

The value of an historical translation
This example is a simple one that confirms the meaning of a word with which we were probably already familiar – the word ‘gospel’. Sometimes the value of a translation made before the time of Jesus is much more important. Isaiah foretold that when the Saviour came, he would be born of a virgin:

‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel’
[Isaiah 7. 14].

Bible critics have said that the word that Isaiah used and which is translated virgin, really only means a young woman, so the prophecy does not have the special significance that Christians claim. It is true that the word in Hebrew translated virgin can also mean a young woman. But what did it mean when Isaiah made that prophetic statement?

When Jewish scholars 250 years before the time of Christ were translating the Prophecy of Isaiah into Greek, they used a Greek word which could only mean ‘a virgin’. Two and a half centuries before the time of Christ, the Jews themselves understood Isaiah to have prophesied that the Messiah when he came, would be born miraculously of a virgin.

The inspired NT writer Matthew, leaves us in no doubt about the accuracy of the prophecy:

‘All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us”’
[Matthew 1. 22,23 NIV].

More information
The arrangement of the books in the Bible
Divine inspiration of the Bible
How the Bible was written and first translated
Further translations of the Bible
The Authorised Version and more recent translations of the Bible
Why today's Bible can be trusted