Common Objections: The Apocrypha

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“None of these books was written in the Hebrew language, which was alone used by God in the Old Testament”

  Gary Hoge

Actually, although most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, not all of it was. There are several passages that were written in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26; Daniel 2:4b–7:28, Jeremiah 10:11; and Genesis 31:47),¹ and there are “loan words” from other languages such as Akkadian, Egyptian, Hittite, and Persian.²

As for the deuterocanonical books, according to Jimmy Akin:

Deuterocanonicals written in Hebrew include Sirach (see the translator’s prologue; also, versions in that language have been found), Baruch, and 1 Maccabees (noted by Origen and Jerome). Judith and Tobit were both written either in Hebrew or Aramaic (fragments of Tobit in both survive, and Jerome used an Aramaic version in composing the Vulgate). The deuterocanonical portions of Daniel were originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, and the deuterocanonical portions of Esther were partly written in Hebrew or Aramaic and partly in Greek. 2 Maccabees was written in Greek, though it includes two prefatory letters that were likely originally in Aramaic. Finally, Wisdom was written in Greek.³

The bottom line is that the premise of this objection is faulty in two ways. First, it’s wrong in its claim regarding language. Parts of the deuterocanonical books were written in Hebrew, and other parts of the Old Testament were not. And second, it’s wrong in its implication that the language in which a document was written has some bearing on whether that document is inspired Scripture. That is plainly not the case. God is not required to express himself only in Hebrew. In the Old Testament he made use of Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Egyptian, Hittite, and Persian. In the New Testament he made use of Greek, Aramaic Hebrew, and Latin.

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

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¹Biblingo, “What Language Was the Bible Written in?,” https://biblingo.com/blog/what-language-was-the-bible-written-in/, March 28, 2024.

²Ben Noonan, “Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible: A Lexicon of Language Contact,” The Ancient Near East Today, June 2020.

³Jimmy Akin, “The Language of the Deuterocanonicals,” https://www.catholic.com/audio/ddp/the-language-of-the-deuterocanonicals, January 27, 2023.