to speak, the period of Classical Hebrew. During the post-exilic period the language changes, partly under the influence of Aramaic, which becomes more and more the everyday idiom of Jews(1). The most advanced stage of post-exilic Hebrew is represented by the language of Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles(2). The discovery in the past half a century or so of new epigraphic materials, notably the Dead Sea Scrolls, their studies, and a fresh investigation into the nature of Mishnaic