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• But the very small numbers of Greek scrolls found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the fact that those date to between the 3rd and 8th centuries A.D., surely brings at end to the argument that Greek was the lingua franca, or normal spoken language, of Jews in Israel in New Testament times. Since there are so few Greek scrolls found, it demonstrates that Greek was not commonly spoken amongst Jews, or at least anything written in Greek was not worth keeping or saving. That also brings an end to the idea that the Greek Septuagint or LXX, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, was commonly used amongst Jews in the first century, such as Jesus. By and large, Jews didn’t use the Greek Septuagint. Jews continued to use the Hebrew Bible, with the Aramaic Targums being used alongside the Hebrew, to make sure they fully understood the Hebrew Scriptures.