Abstract

This article deals with the contacts between Hebrew and Greek from the pre-exilic period up to the Mišnah. As a result of Hellenization, Hebrew progressively lost its importance to the fast-spreading Greek, remaining mainly a literary and liturgic language. In the Diaspora, Hebrew gave way to Greek with the important translation of the Bible known as the Septuagint. Although Judaic society was trying to prevent Hellenization, Greek found its way into in…