The general consensus seems to indicate Jesus spoke ancient Aramaic. The Aramaic language was a Semitic language that was connected to Hebrew. It was also featured in the film ‘Passion’, and with help of multimedia is being preserved so Ancient Aramaic is not lost as a language.
However, we are not certain this was his language, some argue Hebrew. Hebrew was known for the Jews to read scripture and the holy books like it is today, but I think Aramaic was the language spoke by the people.

People that think he spoke the Hebrew language argue the Hebrew language because they want to show Jesus as the fulfillment of all that is written in Hebrew scripture.  Which I believe, but I think he spoke the Aramaic language.

Jesus could have also spoken Ancient Greek, however if he did it was only incidentally not as a native language. Greek was the language of trade and business in the Eastern Mediterranean. So what language did Jesus speak? Native language: Aramaic; Literary language: Hebrew; Second language maybe: Greek. I think the most important point is Jesus spoke the language which was most relevant to the people, a common popular language.

Cardinal Joseph Mezzofanti 1774-1849 taught himself more than 38 languages fluently. Perhaps the best confirmed polyglot that ever lived. People have speculated he spoke more than 38 languages, but Cardinal Messofanti was confirmed and tested to be perfectly fluent in 38 languages. You can read in more detail about his history, but this post concerns his method, that is his method to learn a language and become a polyglot.

Cardinal Mezzofanti’s method for learning a language was simple. He would translate books he already knew. The Bible being his favorite of course. He worked with the Bible to lean a language. From the Bible you have every basic word you can imagine, except for modern inventions which are usually universal. From the Bible you have all the basic grammatical structures. You can study the grammatical variants and derive an understanding of grammar. You can find a variety of translations in any language from formal to vernacular or dialectical (today we even have hip hop Bibles which can help you learn a language with everyday street talk). You can meditate on the passages all day. This is why he choose the Bible to learn languages. After translating the Bible and other universal books, he would go out to Rome and practice with native speakers. Rome had visitors from all over the world so he had the opportunity to practice.

His main characteristics were patience and persistence. You do not have to be fluent in 38 languages or even a polyglot, but consider his method and character, if you want to learn even one foreign language.

A while back I bought a Polish bible to help me learn Polish. It made sense as the stories I knew, the vocabulary was basic, and it was something I enjoyed and could read over and over again. But the problem was the most modern Polish translation was in my opinion a little more modern than the king James bible. And learning Polish sentence structure and vocabulary turned out to be, rather, interesting. Further I did not want to walk down the street using a Polish that would be like Shakespearean English.

Polish hip hop bible to the rescue

I found a Polish hip hop gospel of John, translated in a respectful way but using the language of today. It is amazing in the way they creatively use the language and the vocabulary is the most current there is. In my opinion it is not how a person speaks, but what he has to say that is important and communication is best when it speaks the language of the people who are listening.

If you can make your learning mean something. It will connect deeply with your emotional and learning center of your brain and you will learn a language.

Children learn to survive

The reason a child learns so well,  is there is nothing more important and meaningful to a child than to learn.  A child is wire to learn like a child is wired to eat.  This is because nature knows that if a child is to survive in the world it must learn so it makes learning the first priority.  If you want to learn a language faster you need to ascribe some meaning to your learning.

Meaning and memory

If something is important to you than you will remember it. “An old man never forgets where his wallet is” You will learn and remember things that are important.

Meaning and language learning techniques

Bible and other spiritual writings - Many people have learned languages this way.  This is how people learned 200 years ago and I know there is an Amish family in Poland that learned Polished basically just with the Bible.

Meditation – During meditation repeat a phrase or new word over again like your mantra

Love – Love makes the world go around.  If you learn love phrases and romantic words in your target language because you are in love,  guaranteed you will learn faster.

Music – Music is pure pleasure if you learn by music it might not be as lofty as the above in ideals but it is certainly fun and can be meaningful.

Travel – A more simple reason but if you know you are going to travel to a country for sure learning the language will help and is a great incentive.

Other reasons – there could be a million other reasons to learn a language but if you learn with laser like focus and a single mindedness, that might not be for something as high as ’Ad maiorem Dei gloriam’ ,  but rather for love or pleasure, than you will learn your target language.  100%.

Meaning is the key to learning

The key is not just to learn a language but to make it a joy or an obsession.  Something that is not passive but a passion.  If you find meaning in the Bible for example you can read one passage all day long in your target language, because this is your meaning. Its much more rich than learning from chapter in a book call “At the restaurant” which you might find boring or you may spend an hour a day on.  But if it is your meaning, you will learn it.

Latin the universal language

I am getting married in Poland and I am an American citizen.  The the Polish courts are very slow and difficult, the Catholic church is very easy to work with.  On  thing that would be nice if I could get all my original Church documents in Latin,  so there would be no need to translate birth, confirmation etc certificates from English to Polish.  In the past it was all Latin and no matter where you live your documents are valid in Latin.  Just a trivial rant or a pipe dream but it was kind of cool when all was Latin and universal.

For thousands of years, a tiny Syrian village has kept a well-guarded treasure: the language of Jesus. Tucked away in the Qalamoun Mountains, just north of Damascus, Syria, is Malula – one of the last places on earth where Aramaic is still spoken.

Aramaic was a thriving language during the time of Jesus and his disciples. Many of the gospels were written in the Semitic language, along with sections of the Talmud and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

(from CBS)

There is Ancient Aramaic and modern Aramaic. I think with movies like The passion of Christ and now computers – multi-media technology there is a renewed interest in these languages.

Dostoevsky is often quoted with this statement.  It comes from the ‘Brothers of Karamazov’.  Or does it?  The meaning of the quote is clear and powerful.  And goes along with Dostoevsky’s beliefs as illustrated in the ‘Brothers of Karamazov’. 

Russian

My question is did he actaully write this in Russian or was it just the general idea,  espoused by Ivan Karamazov as he pretended that God did not exisit to go ahead with his crime?  I do not read Russian so I am curious if anyone has feed back on this.

Learn Russian

Metaphors are barbells for the mind. A seemly simple sentence uses language, imagination in both an abstract and concrete sense. Using metaphors in language learning is a simple technique that brings more of what you already knows online.

Memory problems are more often than not a recall rather than a storage problem. Similarly in language learning the issues is often not that a student does not know a vocabulary word, but rather cannot recall it at the time they could use it, that is, it’s not activated. The language learner cannot use it when needed, but rather reverts to the same old patterns of use.

However, if you use metaphors as a practice you will eventually not only create some funny imaginative and poetic sentences but you will activate your language learning. Some people even claim this will help your general intelligence.

For example, you can start with 20 words and you will have to think of a metaphor for these words. Think about parts of the body. In your target language you could say ‘your eyes are like stars in the sky’ in heaven. Your hair is like flowers in the spring. These are love phrases but you can also create some with any theme. ‘Elves are light as the air’. You could write poems or anything that brings what you know out of you and more online so to speak.

Finding a Polish bride might be the not be as hard as jumping through the maze at the Polish government offices to actually make your marriage legal.

How to marry a Polish citizen

There are two types of Polish marriages, Polish civil marriage and Church marriage. If you have a Polish church wedding this is legal. I will explain the Church wedding, as this is more common in Poland.
As with any official or significant event in your life you need to learn to be patient and collect paper. All church documents must be up to date in the last 6 months. All Polish government documents must be up to date in the last 3 months.

Polish Government

1) You need a letter from you Embassy, saying you can get married or they do not have the information regarding this. This is free.

2) You need your birth certificate translated into Polish. You can order a copy of your birth certificate from the Internet. Then you have to go to an official Polish language translator and translate this into Polish. This is about 100 Polish zloty. Or better if you have a Polish Aktu Urodzenia then the process goes much easier, and its only 20 Polish zloty. You get his from Urzad Stanu Cywilnego in Polish

3)Then you go to a Polish court with your future wife/husband and partition them to marry a Polish citizen . This will cost about 100 Polish zloty. You will need an official Polish translator if you do not speak the Polish language. This will take about a few months or more in a city and much quicker if you do it in the Polish countryside.

4)At the end of this, you get a piece of paper from the Polish court that says you can marry a Polish citizen. And you take this to the priests. (After you are married by the priest you take another Piece of Paper and bring it to Urzad od Stanu Cywilnego, this is some Polish office where you simply register your church marriage. Uzad in Polish is a Polish government office.)

The Catholic Church marriage

1) You need to go to classes over four weeks, these classes are kind of interesting and in Polish, so if you are learning or want to learn Polish, here is your chance and the classes are fun. Your there with a bunch of other Polish couples.

Then you have to meet together as a couple twice with a layperson from the church and each individually once.  After this process, you will get a piece of paper with 7 stamps. You each need this. I think this only cost about 30 Polish złoty and the counseling is actually solid advice, not this crazy media pop psychology you might get in the west.
2) You need your birth certificate and your baptism certificate, you need your confirmation certificate or a letter from your priest back home that says you were confirmed (This is the only document that does not need to be to update).
3) You make an appointment with the main church office in your town with all your papers. They check it.
5)Your future wife’s priest and your priest will need to announce, in her and your church, that you will be married. These announcements occur on three Sundays.
That is it.You are all set for your Polish wedding.
How long does this take? It depends on you. I would say 6 months is good but if you wan tot do it in 3 months I think this can be done.

Can you pay anyone to make this go faster? No.
Can I get married in the church without the government paper? Technically yes. But it would not be a legal Polish wedding and I do not know if this done. But in the eyes of the Church your married happily every after.

So what do I need again to get married in Poland?

1) Court decision that says you can marry a Polish person

2) Birth certificate

3) Baptismal certificate

4) Church wedding preparation certificate

Write me at comment if you have any questions about how to marry a Polish citizen.
Have a wonderful life. It is a wonderful time in your life.

Language