Jesus may have walked on water, turned water into wine, brought hearing to the deaf, and restored eyesight to the blind, but it's highly doubtful he was fluent in Latin as depicted in "The Passion of the Christ." History.com reports that, as a first century A.D. man living in the kingdom of Judea, there has been considerable debate about what language Jesus spoke. During a 2014 conversation in Jerusalem between Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis, Netanyahu explained, "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew." To which the Pope replied, "Aramaic." In response to the Pope's correction, Netanyahu said, "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew."
The linguistic locking of horns made headlines across the world. However, most religious historians believe Jesus was multilingual, who spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic in his everyday life but also was well versed in Hebrew. According to Oxford University's Jonathan Katz (via BBC News), other than a few basic words, Jesus would probably have been unable to speak Latin. The language was usually the sole preserve of the lawmakers and Roman military. In "The Passion of the Christ," Jesus and his disciples mainly converse in Old Aramaic, with Hebrew being the language of the Jewish authorities. The exception is the scenes with Pontius Pilate. The Roman addresses Jesus in Aramaic, but to prove his linguistic prowess and to demonstrate he will not be bowed, Jesus answers him in fluent Latin. It's a dramatic moment and not unlike when Mel Gibson's character William Wallace switches to Latin in "Braveheart." Yet although the Scottish freedom fighter may have been fluent in Latin, Jesus was not.
