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• And so, during the Assyrian, Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires, the nations surrounding Israel all spoke Aramaic, while the Jews themselves had a fundamental shift from Hebrew to Aramaic after the Babylonian exile. During the Greek Empire, some Greek words may well have entered into everyday language (such as the names of coins and words related to commerce) and some pockets of Greek speaking Jews did emerge, especially following the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, as we saw in our lesson on The Maccabean Revolt. But the ordinary Jews, especially faithful Jews, continued to speak Aramaic as their everyday language, as well as Hebrew for reading the Hebrew Bible, for prayers, and worship in the Temple and synagogue (just as Jews do today!).