It continues to amaze me (but not surprise me) how people will keep reposting memes about what Jesus looked like and what language he spoke, etc., when they have never studied the subject (and it shows). So, let me provide a little history lesson and a bit of scholarly understanding.
First, Hebrew was rarely spoken at all in the time of Jesus. Why? Because when other nations – the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Medo-Persians – took over their territory, they imposed their own languages on the people as all conquering peoples do in all cases. Hebrew simply became phased out over time because of this intrusion. It was kept alive only by priests and rabbis who continued to learn how to read the Hebrew texts and recopied them as part of the learning process – so they were able to read and write Hebrew. It was used on a limited basis in the Temple and the synagogues sort of the way Latin is used in the Roman Catholic Church today. That allows lay people to have a very limited knowledge of Latin while the priest have to study it and write it, just the way ancient priest and scribes had to study and write Hebrew. It’s the same dynamic. No one actually speaks Latin as a formal language today and no one spoke it as a formal language in the time of Jesus either. Frankly, the only reason that the ancient scriptures still exist at all in Hebrew/Aramaic is because of this process because by the time of Jesus virtually no one else could have read and understood them in the Hebrew/Aramaic.
Now, the Assyrians and Babylonians had a lesser impact as far as language is concerned than the Medo-Persians did. What that means is that under Medo-Persian rule they, like all others, imposed their language on the conquered, which happened to be Aramaic. Aramaic, by the way, is similar to Hebrew, but distinct from it. So, it was a relatively easy transition for most people. Because of their influence, Aramaic became the spoken language of the area, period. Again, Hebrew had basically been phased out in favor of Aramaic. THAT is why, even up to Roman times, the common people spoke Aramaic as a first language. This was basically universal to that area of the world.
However, as is always the case, once the Greeks conquered the Medo-Persian empire they imposed Greek upon the populations. But, in this case, there was a good bit of opposition from some elements of the population so that some areas continued to predominantly speak Aramaic. This included the area referred to as Galilee.
Now, the opposition was not just about language. See, the Greeks were determined to effectively impose their religion upon other peoples too. And, to a large extent, this effort worked. That’s why you see Greek temples all over the eastern world. That it became mixed with indigenous religions is just natural. But the Hebrews, to a large extent, resisted this. Over time, many did adopt the Greek ways and they generally became members of the upper classes because, frankly, if you wanted to get anywhere in life, you became Hellenized. This included a good number of priests, by the way.
All that being said, by the time of Jesus there were still pockets of resistance to Hellenization and that included Galilee. That is why scholars are generally satisfied that the first language of Jesus was Aramaic. The fact that there are a few instances in the NT that demonstrate that he spoke Aramaic support this. But that does NOT mean that he did not know Greek. He, like anyone else, would have known at least enough Greek to engage in commerce, etc. In his day, Greek was the dominant language of the area whether some people liked it or not. It would have been astounding for anyone of that area during that time-period to have known no Greek! They would have truly been a hillbilly! And Jesus could not very well have spoken only Aramaic and interacted with the masses, many of whom would have had Greek as their fist language, could he?
All of that having been said, even scholars seem to miss the point that Jesus, if the gospels are accurate, was brought up in Egypt. Now, granted, Aramaic was spoken there too to a limited degree. But by the time of Jesus Greek was the predominant language there – so much so that the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) had to be translated into Greek so that people could actually read them. What people need to understand is that a Jewish diaspora already existed by his time and most Jews who were outside of their homeland were in Egypt. And they spoke Greek. Would Jesus have likely been exposed to some of the Koptic (Egyptian) language while there? Certainly. But you never see a meme touting how he knew Egyptian, do you? So, the likelihood is really that Jesus’ first language actually WAS Greek and that he knew a limited amount of Koptic and was probably fluent in Aramaic too because his later life was spent in Galilee. He may have grown to prefer Aramaic and spoke it most often. But there can be little to no doubt that he also understood and spoke Greek.
Now, for those who insist (as the memes do) that he also spoke Latin, the problem really is how much Latin, if any? See, in the eastern empire, once again, the dominant language was Greek. This was something that the Romans simply did not try very hard to change. Why? Because they, for the most part, understood Greek too. There was simply no need for them to try to impose Latin in the eastern empire. There are a few monuments in the east that have Latin inscriptions but, for the most part, inscriptions in the east are in Greek. One notable exception (and this is not a complete exception) came when the Romans defeated the Jews during the Bar-Kokhba Revolt and afterward sought to change Jerusalem into Aelia Kapitolina. Note that I used the Greek form of the name here. Why? Because inscriptions from the city predominantly refer to it this way. But not all of them did. Some show Aelia Capitolina instead. There is a reason for this. The reason is that Aelia was a Roman colony. They deliberately settled Romans in the new city to Romanize it. They erected Roman temples, etc. there too. This was a deliberate effort to forever change the city. Therefore, there are more inscriptions in Latin there than elsewhere in the east.
Anyway, this simply illustrates the fact that Jesus did not have a need to even know much, if any, Latin. Might he have understood a limited amount of Latin? Possibly. But there is no proof of this. I know a few words on French, but that does not mean I know French. I studied it and did not do particularly well in it. So, I would never claim that I KNOW French even though I did try to learn it and, for a time, could almost reasonably use it.
In the end, the fact of the matter is that people like to post and repost memes that make them feel good as if they actually know something when they have never studied the subject at all. I agree that most scholars are right in that the predominant language of Jesus was likely Aramaic for the reasons shown. And I agree that he must have known some – probably a lot of – Greek. Beyond that we only have speculation.