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• These verses show that the official royal correspondence of the empire was in Aramaic. Aramaic was used to explain the official decree into any local Aramaic dialects, and to ensure that everyone fully understood the official decrees.
• As we have seen, the Medo-Persian Empire was vast, covering a huge area of land from Ethiopia and Egypt, right across as far east as India. The Elephantine Papyri date to this period. They are a vast collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts dating from the 5th century B.C., and covering a period of 1000 years. Elephantine was an island in the Nile at the border of Nubia.