Category: Come Follow Me

Jesus spoke Aramaic, the common language of Galilee in the first century. The Gospels preserve traces of this in words like Abba and ṭalîta’ qûmî, even though they were written in Greek. But the real significance goes beyond vocabulary: Aramaic-speaking circles that contributed to the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John remembered Jesus in distinct ways. For example, Peter’s circle emphasized forgiveness, that of Mary Magdalene focused on purity, and so on. Together, they form overlapping but distinct “streams of tradition” in the Gospels, revealing that no single community preserved the whole picture of Jesus. In this interview, Bruce Chilton discusses his book Aramaic Jesus and what it reveals about the language Jesus spoke, memory, and the earliest church.

Gethsemane in Jesus’s time was a working olive orchard with terraced groves and a cave press where olives were crushed and stored. Archaeological findings point to the Gethsemane grotto itself as a likely setting for Jesus’s anguished prayer in the New Testament, with his disciples resting outside among the trees. From its vantage across the Jerusalem temple, the site carried deep associations with sacrifice, light, and anointing. In this interview, Matthew J. Grey explores the history, symbolism, and gospel portrayals of the Garden of Gethsmane.