An Overview of Christianity and the Hebrew Language

Christianity’s connection to the Hebrew language and the land now known as Israel goes back to its roots in 1st-century Judea. Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure of Christianity, lived and taught in this region, and many of the earliest Christians were Jewish followers who spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. The earliest Christian scriptures, the New Testament, were primarily written in Greek, but they contain numerous references to the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, known in Christianity as the Old Testament. The Hebrew language was therefore integral to the early Christian understanding of theology, as Hebrew scriptures were foundational to the teachings and prophecies that early Christians believed Jesus fulfilled.

Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and became increasingly distinct from its Jewish roots, eventually developing Latin and Greek as its primary liturgical languages. For centuries, Hebrew was studied mostly by Jewish scholars, but during the Reformation and the Renaissance, Christian scholars renewed interest in Hebrew to understand biblical texts more authentically. In modern Israel, established as a Jewish state in 1948, Hebrew has revived as a living language, though Christianity remains a minority religion. Today, a small but active Christian community exists in Israel, with services in Hebrew, Arabic, and other languages, and modern Hebrew translations of the New Testament are available, helping make Christian scripture accessible to Hebrew-speaking readers.