III.

Postbiblical Hebrew

Mishnaic or rabbinic Hebrew, dating from about ad200, was the language of the Mishnah. It was solely a written language but was more adaptable to practical use than biblical Hebrew. The vocabulary and syntactic innovations were strongly Aramaic, and words were borrowed from Greek, Latin, and Persian. New meanings and forms were given to biblical Hebrew words, and the expressions of time were clarified. Hebrew vocabulary was further augmented in the Middle Ages by the Arabic influence on philosophic writing and through translations of Arabic philosophical and scientific works. From the 9th century on, the use of Hebrew declined.