LANGUAGES
The diversity of languages dates back to the confusion of Babel (Gen. 11). Thus, language, a basic tool of communication, became useless for the common enterprise to which humanity had dedicated itself in its challenge to God, and dispersion ensued.
The Bible itself was written in two main languages, Hebrew for the OT, with a few passages in Aramaic, while the NT was written in Greek. However, the different writings show linguistic traces of the times and historical circumstances in which they were written.
In the Pentateuch an Egyptian influence is evident in many names and certain terms; On the other hand, in the book of Daniel there are administrative terms taken from Persian, and names of musical instruments that had come from Greece while retaining their Greek name.
The Persian influence is also seen in the vocabulary of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. In the NT, the different influences on the authors are also noted depending on their origin, although they all used the Greek “koinë” of the Hellenized peoples of the East.