Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
I would think that the surviving Hebrew musical score would have retained the Hebrew words (there are scriptures [Ezra?] showing the original melodies surviving the Babylonian captivity, and I assume they continued after that).
If you look at the Psalms, there are a number of stylistic cues that the words were arranged to fit a melodic structure. There is repetition of phrases, just as we have stanza/chorus arrangements in modern songs (including hymns). And there seems to be a truly ancient rule in which the melody provides structure and controls or at least affects the word choice. How much was that the case with the original Hebrew music?
Now the big question is: did this also occur in the Septuagint? Did the Greek get translated to fit the Hebrew (temple) melodies? Or (less likely) did they try to put new melodies into place? I personally doubt that either case is true. But I don't know. I've never considered this question before.
Anyway, I would surmise that in Jesus Christ's time they sang them in Hebrew, and spoke them in Greek. But that merely is a guess. A very interesting question, though.
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It is more than claimed that Jesus and his disciple spoke Aramaic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_of_Jesus.
The production of the Greek Septuagint was a product of the Hellenization of Judea. They were all Hellenized in the first century; Jesus, the disciples, the Jews, Paul, and the gospel writers. That's why they used the Septuagint instead of the Masoretic Text.