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• Thus, the debate whether Hebrew or Aramaic was “the spoken language at the time” will no doubt continue. The evidence is that both were spoken languages. Religious Jews, or Zealots, no doubt longed for Hebrew to be the predominant language again, just as they longed for the Law of Moses to be established in the Temple again and Jerusalem to be the Holy City again, but ever since the Babylonian exile, they were fighting a losing battle against the rising tide of the Aramaic language.