Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

The key figures of the New Testament spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language that is closer to Arabic than to Hebrew.

The New Testament was written in Greek but with a few phrases of Aramaic included, as direct quotations. e.g. on the cross Jesus says, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani”, meaning “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”.

John the Baptists’s name was , ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, ( romanised as Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā).

So this made me wonder whether Mamdani’s name was related.

But it’s not.

Didn’t know the NT was written in Greek.

TATE confirms that it was

Over much of Europe, Greek was more the lingua franca of the day than Latin, strange though it may seem.

Particularly in the eastern parts of the empire. Roman elites were often raised and educated bilingual.