Remote village still speaks same Aramaic that Jesus did

With only about half a million speakers worldwide, this ancient language that has existed since at least the 11th century BC is almost extinct.

A popular reel about an out-of-the-way village in Syria where a small portion of the residents still speak what linguists believe to be the specific Aramaic dialect that Jesus spoke is catching a lot of attention on social media. With over 234,000 “likes” and 12,000 comments, the informational short by @AuthenticTraveling is certainly resonating with its audience.

The informative clip offers a peek into the area known as Maalaula, a community built into the rocks of an isolated mountainous region of Syria where many Christians are believed to have lived in caves during times of persecution. Through a montage of brief interviews and scenes depicting ancient churches and religious art, viewers get a chance to listen to Aramaic spoken in ordinary, everyday conversations. The narrator describes being prayed for in the ancient language by several locals as well.

The brief film also gives a glimpse of a locale where Christianity was once the region’s dominant religion before it was conquered by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century and further destroyed by Jihadist groups during the country’s civil war.

The travel influencer responsible for the clip, who describes himself as an “American content creator with a particular focus on food culture and less-visited destinations,” touched on the fact that hardly any of the young people in Maaloula still speak Aramaic, a language that once “ruled the Middle East”‘ but one that is expected to be extinct within the next century.

Here’s a comparison to give a little perspective on the significance of the estimated 0.5 million Aramaic speakers, compared to the 25 most spoken languages worldwide, courtesy of Britannica. Note: This list goes by the number of native speakers, and does not count secondary languages.

Chinese (1,346,000,000 [Mandarin: 939,237,350])
Spanish (485,063,960)
English (379,682,200)
Arabic (373,000,000 [Egyptian Arabic: 77,436,230])
Hindi (344,650,870)
Portuguese (236,266,650)
Bengali (233,808,880)
Russian (146,954,150)
Japanese (123,285,670)
Lahnda (103,000,000 [Western Punjabi: 66,715,480]).
Vietnamese (85,023,700)
Turkish (84,010,500)
Marathi (83,201,270)
Telugu (82,966,790)
Malay (82,200,000 [Indonesian: 43,666,200])
Korean (81,721,540)
French (80,770,190)
Tamil (78,587,030)
German (75,282,080)
Urdu (70,555,140)
Javanese (68,278,400)
Italian (64,647,380)
Farsi (57,192,350)
Gujarati (57,076,220)
Pashto (53,800,000)