{"id":92388,"date":"2025-11-06T12:14:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/?page_id=92388"},"modified":"2025-11-20T16:54:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T21:54:41","slug":"texts-and-languages","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/knowledge-bar\/texts-and-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"Texts and Languages"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nHome<\/a> \/ Knowledge BAR<\/a> \/ Texts and Languages\n<\/div>\n
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\"Opening<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is Latin?<\/a><\/h4>\n

Although the original biblical texts were written mostly in Hebrew or Greek, there is no denying that Latin was one of the most important languages of the biblical world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"Section<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is Biblical Greek?<\/a><\/h4>\n

Biblical Greek, as it is commonly known, is a dialect of the ancient Greek language known as h\u0113koin\u0113dialektos<\/em> (\u201cthe common dialect\u201d) or Koine Greek. This dialect became the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean world for almost a millennium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"Kuttamuwa<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is Aramaic?<\/a><\/h4>\n

The Aramaic language constitutes the eastern branch of the Northwest Semitic language family. Its closest relatives are the Canaanite dialects in the western branch of the family, such as Hebrew, Phoenician, and Moabite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"Brick<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is Akkadian?<\/a><\/h4>\n

Akkadian, the language of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, was once the lingua franca of the entire Near East.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is Biblical Hebrew?<\/a><\/h4>\n

Biblical Hebrew is the dialect of the Canaanite language used by the people of ancient Israel, and the primary language of the Hebrew Bible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"Hittite<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is Hittite?<\/a><\/h4>\n

Hittite, the language of the ancient Anatolian kingdom of Hatti, is the oldest recorded Indo-European language.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is the Cairo Geniza?<\/a><\/h4>\n

The Cairo Geniza refers to the cache of about 300,000 documents found in the attic storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, located in Fustat (in Old Cairo), the capital city of Egypt during the seventh\u2013tenth centuries C.E.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is the Epic Gilgamesh?<\/a><\/h4>\n

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian literary work that tells a fantastic story of King Gilgamesh\u2019s failed quest for immortality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is the Rosetta Stone?<\/a><\/h4>\n

The Rosetta Stone refers to a fragmented Egyptian stela discovered near the Mediterranean port city of Rasheed (also known as Rosetta), in the western Nile Delta.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home \/ Knowledge BAR \/ Texts and Languages What Is Latin? Although the original biblical texts were written mostly in Hebrew or Greek, there is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"parent":92131,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-92388","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTexts and Languages - Biblical Archaeology Society<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/knowledge-bar\/texts-and-languages\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texts and Languages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Home \/ Knowledge BAR \/ Texts and Languages What Is Latin? 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