I am writing fiction and I want to depict with a moderate amount of accuracy at least one character who is a jew in the first century CE. I am english and I write in english - however I need advice on how to include or use Jewish terms and which language to use. For example, when having a Jewish character discuss ‘God’, I could use something like ‘Adonai’ or ‘YaShem’ - which I believe are English depictions of Hebrew? (if they are the wrong word choice feel free to explain/correct me). Although my fiction is not focused on Jewish practices at that time and it is not ‘about’ being Jewish or anything of the sort - its more to do with Romans actually - I want to be able to depict the Jewish terminology and any ritualistic practices somewhat accurately.
The terms and words I see in use in books about Judaism (that I believe are Hebrew) - would these mean anything to a 1st century jew? I have read many times that Jews were often bi-lingual speaking Aramaic and Koine Greek - therefore are words like Elohim, Torah, mitzvah a total anachronism if i depict a 1st century Jew using them? Do I need to find Aramaic translations of these terms or are Hebrew and Aramaic interchangeable for the purpose that I’m describing?
(I don’t want to bog the reader down with hundreds of these terms - just to add a flavour to my text in the same way that any other historical author might. Like if I used ‘gladius’ instead of sword when writing about a Roman soldier - it adds a touch of historicity. I hope I’ve explained myself well enough).
First of all, the word is "HaShem" rather than "YaShem". Secondly, you need to be a little more specific about where this Jewish person is living. For example, many of the writings coming out of the Jewish Babylonian community from around this period (although perhaps starting a little later) are in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic but this may not be representative of the language the average Jew was speaking. I don't know very much about that.
Words like "Elohim" and "Adonai" would not be anachronistic -- they are often found in the Bible. That being said, would a Jew at the time use this to casually refer to god? It's a tricky question. The word "HaShem" is different in that it is not used in the Bible to refer to god. As for the words "Torah" and "Mitzvah", these are also to be found in Biblical Hebrew but are not used the way they are used by Jewish communities nowadays. "Torah" means teaching and might have referred to the books of Moses or some other specific work, rather than Jewish knowledge in the whole. "Mitzvah" means "commandment" in Hebrew, but it is nowadays used interchangeably with a "good deed".
First, I think the term you're looking for is "hashem", which means "the name".
Anyway, most people during this period would've spoken Aramaic as their daily language, with lots of Hebrew influence in religious vocabulary (Hebrew and Aramaic are fairly closely related to begin with). While a decent proportion of the population would've spoken some Greek, maybe even as a primary language outside Judea, Aramaic was definitely the main language of the period you're talking about.
In terms of the terminology, "adonai" would be used mostly in liturgy. There are a few terms a person could use if talking about God more colloquially. While we obviously don't have recordings of regular colloquial speech from then, we do have other religious texts where people were sort of saying things, rather than reciting liturgy.
There are a couple terms which get used. One is "ha-kadosh barukh hu", meaning "the Holy Blessed One" (or more traditionally translated "The Holy One, Blessed be He"). Another is "ha-makom", which literally means "the place" but is usually translated "the Omnipresent". "Elohim" is also sometimes used.
For the other terms, "mitzvah" and "Torah" would not be at all out of place. Though do note that the meaning of "Torah" would've been a bit broader. While it could mean "the 5 books of Moses", it could also refer to Jewish religious teaching more broadly.