Because the scripture he read from was Hebrew and the Jews spoke Hebrew.
In the synagogues as was the custom, Jesus stood, read and taught from the Hebrew scrolls. Throughout his ministry, Jesus's quoting and teaching from the Hebrew Bible appealed to his Jewish audiences and reinforced his authority.
Jesus spoke Aramaic words that his Greek New Testament writers referred to:
Abba = "Father" (Mark 14:36); raca = "fool" (Matt 5:22, KJV); mammon = "money" (Matt 6:24; Luke 16: 9, 11,13 KJV); Talith koum, = "little girl... get up" (Mark 5:41); Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni = "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm of David 22 and Matt 27:45-54)
Greek speaking Jews lived in Galilee and Jerusalem (Acts 9:28, 29), and it's likely that Jesus conversed with them in Greek during the Jewish festivals of Passover, etc. Jesus encountered people from the Decapolis (ten Greek towns) and the Greek town Sepphoris was less than 5 miles from his hometown of Nazareth.
His apostles spoke Hebrew and Greek. The Septuagint shows that. It also shows that, during and after Pentacost, the apostles were empowered to speak the language of whatever Gentile country they were in. Including Paul, former Jewish Pharisee, who could write to the churches of Rome in Latin and to the churches of Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, etc., in Greek.
The Jews wondered during the Babylonian captivity, how to worship God away from the temple. To their surprise they discovered that God could make Himself known beyond Jerusalem, even beside the River Chebar in Babylon (Ezekial 1:1; 3:14)
Rather than depend on the priests and the temple rituals, the Jews began to value those who could read and interpret God's Word -- a tradition that continued after they returned from the Babylonian captivity to their homeland.
They set up synagugues as houses of worship in their hometowns. The word "synagogue" is based on two Greek terms: syn (pronounced "soon), which refers to a union, companionship, association or being beside others, and ago, which means to bring or lead. The verb form of the word can also refer to convening a group OR drawing up a fishing net.
Synagogue worship always included an assigned Scripture reading, in which God
a) spoke to his people;
b) prayer, when God's people spoke to Him, and
c) preaching or teaching, when God's people encouraged one another in the faith. Like the printing press increased human literacy, the synagogues of Jesus' day brought reading and worship to the people. It was the most impactful religious institution for most Jews in Jesus's day. Synagogues encouraged lay participation, also. Laymen could read the Scripture passage for the service, and then another of their choosing, and worshippers could ask questions or challenge them as they taught.
So. No. Many were illiterate, but literacy became contagious. They were not an illiterate people.
Jesus announced who he was when he read the passage below from Isaiah 61, written about 750 years before Jesus stood in the synagogue of Nazareth. Before him had been so many generations, dying off without seeing the fulfillment of God's promise. And now ...
Isaiah 61 was about his messianic prophecy, one God's people would have been familiar with. It was one of the promises they'd clung to about God's coming chosen One through all the years of captivity & oppression, through destruction of the temple, and through the occupation by the Romans. It was a passage of hope, that talked about giving sight to the blind, freedom to the captives, and bringing in the "year of the Lord's favor."
That day God kept his word, it just wasn't in the time or fashion the Jews had come to expect.
From Luke, the historian, who wrote Luke 4:20-21 (He also wrote Acts of the Apostles):
"He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the atttendant, and sat down. And the eyes of the everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began by saying to them, "Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled."
Bam. In other words, "I am Him. I'm the one you have waited for. And you are bearing witness to the fulfillment of these very words."
He'd come from their own small town of Nazareth. They loved the pronouncement. But later in Luke we read that they shifted dramatically to frustration, anger and violence. Why? Because they did not expect this kind of Messiah. They's assumed He would be a political, powerful leader who'd conquer their enemies. But Jesus challenged their assumptions. As he has challenged ours ever since.
The gospel writers' accounts supplement different details but remain in core agreement about what they and others witnessed. They knew the eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection. I've got all kinds of books, along with Wikipedia, to study, thanks.
Thanks for your post. (sorry mine was delayed; been taking calls and busy with home projects)
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