7. (a) How does the Bible testify to the use of Koine in the time of Jesus and his apostles? (b) Why was Koine well suited for communicating God’s Word?

⁷ In the days of Jesus and his apostles, Koine was the international language of the Roman realm. The Bible itself testifies to this fact. When Jesus was nailed to the stake, it was necessary for the inscription over his head to be posted not only in Hebrew, the language of the Jews, but also in Latin, the official language of the land, and in Greek, which was spoken on the streets of Jerusalem almost as frequently as in Rome, Alexandria, or Athens itself. (John 19:19, 20; Acts 6:1) Acts 9:29 shows that Paul preached the good news in Jerusalem to Jews who spoke the Greek language. Koine was by that time a dynamic, living, well-developed tongue​—a language ready at hand and well suited for Jehovah’s lofty purpose in further communicating the divine Word.

The 27 canonical books of the Christian Scriptures were written in the common Greek of the day. However, the book of Matthew was apparently written first in Biblical Hebrew, to serve the Jewish people. The fourth-century Bible translator Jerome states this, saying that it was later translated into Greek.b Matthew himself probably made this translation​—having been a Roman civil servant, a tax collector, he without doubt knew Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.​—Mark 2:14-17.

10. How have the Bible writings come down to us?

¹⁰ The other Christian Bible writers, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, and Jude, all wrote their documents in Koine, the common, living language that was understood by the Christians and most other people of the first century. The last of the original documents was written by John about 98 C.E.