traditional language of the educated, Hebrew. (The street language was Aramaic.) But what kind of Hebrew this is! It is thoroughly new in comparison with the settled and colorful, yet classically simple, language of Proverbs, or with that of the Psalms, the Torah, the historical and prophetic books. Here attention has been paid to the way this Aramaic-speaking people actually talked. A writer has worked out philosophical concepts in the language of merchants. Greek syntax and stereotypes of speech