Are Muslims Correct that We’ve Lost Jesus’ Words?

In a visit to the largest mosque in downtown Atlanta, a Muslim leader told Alan Shlemon that Christians have lost the actual words of Jesus. His reasoning seemed straightforward: Jesus spoke Aramaic, the Gospels were written in Greek, and most Christians read them in English. By contrast, he claimed, the Quran was dictated in Arabic to Muhammad, memorized in Arabic, written down in Arabic, and is still read in Arabic today — no loss of words or meaning. On the surface, this sounds like a clean argument. Shlemon, however, unpacks why it fails on three distinct grounds.

Writing in Greek Was an Advantage, Not a Problem

The Muslim objection assumes that preserving Jesus’ exact Aramaic words is the gold standard for reliability. But Shlemon argues that the opposite is true: writing the Gospels in Greek was a strategic advantage. Greek was the lingua franca of the eastern Roman Empire — the language of trade, education, and daily life. By the first century, even the Old Testament had been translated into Greek (the Septuagint) precisely to make it widely accessible. Writing the New Testament in Greek ensured that the gospel message could spread far beyond the small Aramaic-speaking population of Judea.