Aramaic and the Greek Empire

Launch Interactive Lesson

In previous lessons, we have looked at the use of Aramaic in the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire.

In this lesson, we continue our journey in time looking at the major Biblical empires across the Middle East, by looking at the Greek Empire. While the conquests of Alexander the Great did start a gradual Hellenisation process, the ordinary people of the Middle East continued to speak Aramaic, as they always had done, except for small pockets here and there of Grecian Jews, or Jews who had adopted Greek customs and who were regarded as apostate by mainstream Jews.

Especially in the Land of Israel, Jews rebelled against the Greek rule, including its language and customs, to cause The Maccabean Revolt, which we shall look at in the next lesson.

It is incredibly important to understand this conflict between Aramaic and Greek, between the faithful Jews who spoke Aramaic (and Hebrew too) and those Jews who had succumbed to Hellenistic influence, to Greek culture and language, and who were regarded as apostate. This battle between Semitic culture and Greek culture is an important backdrop to New Testament times.

Watch the Video Lesson

Buy a DVD of these lessons on the History & Background of Aramaic