Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

LATIN

One of the primary languages of the Greco-Roman world. The supremacy of Rome, and the ramifications of its official relations with the people under its control, made the widespread use of Latin, Rome’s vernacular, inevitable. This led to a considerable Latin contribution to koine (common) Greek. From the beginning of the Roman sway in Greece, Roman politics and commerce contributed a constantly increasing number of Latin words to Greek.

Traces of Latin in the NT are, therefore, not surprising. But Latin influence on NT Greek has left its mark mainly upon vocabulary, in the transliterated words and literally translated phrases. Latin was one of the three languages in which the inscription on the cross was written (Lk 23:38, KJB; Jn 19:20). Only in these two passages does the term “Latin” occur in the NT. Latin was the language of Roman law and court procedure. Greek might be allowed, but only by favor of the court. This explains why the superscription was written in Latin as well as Greek and Aramaic. Every educated Roman would understand Greek, but Latin was used as the official and military, as well as legal, language. This is reflected in the NT where Latin judicial and military terms occur, along with the names of coins, articles of apparel, utensils, and so on. For example, Latin words are used for farthing, denarius, centurion, colony, guard or watch, legion, towel, parchment, palace, assassin, napkin, and superscription. In addition, over 40 Latin names of persons, titles, and places occur in the NT. Among the better known are Agrippa, Claudius, Caesar, Felix, and Cornelius. Romans 16 reveals that Latin proper names were common among Christians.

In Mark’s Gospel more Latin words, apart from proper names, occur than in other NT documents. This is to be expected if the Gospel were indeed written in Rome, but this is by no means established. The occurrence of numerous Latin words in this shortest of the four Gospels is not necessarily evidence of its Roman origin, because they are usually terms that the Roman government would make familiar in all parts of the empire. Also, Latinisms found in Mark’s Gospel are found in the other three Gospels. For example, Matthew uses Latin words for mile, tribute, guard or watch, and to take counsel. Because of the close grammatical affinity between Latin and Greek, the influence of the former upon the grammar of the latter is more difficult to trace.

For over 100 years after the founding of the Christian church, Greek dominated over Latin in Christian circles. The providential spread of common Greek made it possible for the church to use one Bible: the Greek OT. To freedmen and slaves, Latin was a foreign, and largely unknown, language. This explains why the earliest traces of a Latin translation of any part of the Scriptures are relatively late.