‍These books weren't originally written in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament

  Gary Hoge  ·  October 10, 2026

‍This objection makes two points—and they’re both wrong. First, several of the books commonly called the Apocrypha were originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. The Oxford Bible Commentary, a non-denominational scholarly reference work, explains that the discovery of Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts of Tobit among the Dead Sea Scrolls has established its Semitic origins. It also identifies Sirach as originally composed in Hebrew and 1 Maccabees as probably composed in Hebrew, while Wisdom of Solomon and 2 Maccabees were composed in Greek.¹

‍But even if some of these books were written in Greek, why would that make a difference? The entire New Testament was originally written in Greek, so clearly it’s a language with which God is comfortable.

‍Second, although most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, not all of it was. Substantial portions of Ezra and Daniel were written in Aramaic, as were Jeremiah 10:11 and a few words in Genesis 31:47.²

‍But even if this objection were correct on both points, it would still fail because of the assumption that lies behind them. It implies that the language in which a book was written has some bearing on whether it is inspired Scripture. But why should it? God inspired books written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. There is no reason to suppose that a book written in Greek during the Old Testament period should, for that reason, be excluded from the Old Testament.

‍All that matters is whether God inspired the writing. The language in which he inspired it is irrelevant.

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^‍1 Martin Goodman, “Introduction to the Apocrypha,” in The Oxford Bible Commentary, ed. John Barton and John Muddiman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 620–621.

^‍2 Biblingo, “What Language Was the Bible Written in?,” March 28, 2024, https://biblingo.com/blog/what-language-was-the-bible-written-in/.