A Brief History of Biblical Greek

In the fourth century BCE, Alexander the Great conquered much of the Mediterranean world. Because of his love and appreciation for all things Greek, Alexander initiated the spread of Greek thought and culture throughout the lands which he conquered, which included the land of Israel. Soon, Greek influence became so dominant, that the peoples in these lands—despite not being ethnically Greeks themselves—learned, adopted, and even assimilated Greek thought and culture into their own.

This process of the spread and influence of Greek thought and culture is known as “Hellenization”. The term “Hellenization” comes from Hellēn—the Greek word for “Greek”. Hence, “Hellenization” is the Greek-ization of people who were not originally inherently Greek; turning them Greek, albeit only externally. In order to succeed in a world where Greek thought and culture was dominant, it only made sense that one had to learn to live like a Greek, think like a Greek, and of course, speak like a Greek.

Thus, alongside the multiple dialects of Greek spoken in the cities of Greece, a common form of Greek arose and became the international language of the Mediterranean world, just as English is the international language of the world today. This international Greek dialect is what we call today “Koine Greek”. The term “Koine” comes from the Greek adjective koinos, which means “common”.

By the time of Jesus in the first century CE, Koine Greek had become the primary language of everyday life even among the Jews living in the land of Israel, alongside Hebrew and Aramaic. It was in this backdrop of the dominance of the Greek language in the land of Israel that the books of the New Testament were written—in Greek.