Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Firstly some correctives:

Aramaic was not the native language of the Babylonians. Akkadian was.

Aramaic was a widely spoken language throughout the fertile crescent. It was 
something of an international 'koine'.

The reason many Judeans adopted Aramaic was because they were forcibly 
migrated away from their homeland (Judah), and in order to communicate with 
the people around them, had to adopt a common language medium. That was 
Aramaic. This is not dissimilar to people of Japanese descent today migrating 
to the USA and speaking English (the language of England) there. My own 
family did the same when they migrated from Greece to Australia. I still 
speak to my parents in Greek, but English is my first language, and my 
parents can also speak English too.

It's really no big deal.

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au