I do not believe at all that it was an 'accident in history' that Yahweh send His Son to be born in a world controlled politically by the Romans whose main lingua franca in the East, at least, was Greek. Messianics in particular, who often only to see the evils of Roman and Greek paganism, tend to be not a little prejudiced against even that from which we have benefited from Rome and Greece. But like it or not, Greek was known and spoken virtually everywhere in the biblical world at the time of Yah'shua (Jesus) and the apostles, even though other languages lived side by side with it. Even even if uneducated people like Peter and John (Ac.4:13) could not read or write Greek, they could certainly understand it. Peter did not need to speak all the languages of his hearers at Shavu'ot (Pentecost) - all he needed was his power to talk intelligent Greek.

So of what benefit was Greek to the first missionaries? Enormous! It gave them a huge advantage over his modern counterpart. There was no need for him to spend the first year or two in a new country in laboriously learning the language, quite a part from the fact that when he did need a foreign language because his listener could understand neither Greek, Hebrew nor Aramaic, he enjoyed the supernatural gift of speaking foreign languages, otherwise known as 'tongues'. Moreover, Greek versions of the Gospels could be easily circulated and would be understood everywhere - which is why we have so many early New Testament manuscripts in that language and only a few in the original Aramaic or Hebrew. Together with the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Bible which had been made for the benefit of Greek-speaking Hebrews abroad and those they tried to evangelise, the whole Bible would come to be available in a language which was virtually 'universal'.

Today's lingua franca or 'universal language' is English (previously it had been French, and before that, Latin) and so it is in our language that we find so many English translations of the Holy Scriptures. This is good but it does have its disadvantages as we seek to get back to the authentic world and religion of the New Testament times. A knowledge of Greek is very helpful, for those able to acquire it, but Hebrew becomes even more essential if we are to get back to the roots of Yahweh's original revelation and not miss the original sense. I encourage you to especially learn the latter, if you are able, or to at least get a smattering.

Yah'shua (Jesus) was born into a world that was politically Roman and He will likely return to a world that is politically 'Roman' again. The universal language of the First Coming was Greek and the universal language of the Second will undoubtedly be English...unless I am mistaken and it is Mandarin. But the emet or truth will be found in Hebrew, so it is to that we must return, translating it as best we can into our own modern languages - not just language but the ancient ways of thinking and being. Not that that we will ever be able to return exactly to the way it was. Yahweh has, for reasons best known to Himself, ensured that the end-time believers will be coloured with Greek, Latin, French and English...and no doubt other languages too.

We live in a very different cultural and lingual world to the one of the Bible. Inevitably. But we can still do much necessary good in the cause of Emet (TRuth) in putting the Hebraic tongue back in the centre and absorbing the best of all the others.