crates, Plato, and others became famous. The period from about the fourth century B.C.E.

to about
the sixth century C.E. was the age of what is known as Koine, or common Greek. Its development
was due largely to the military operations of Alexander the Great, whose army was made up of
soldiers from all parts of Greece. They spoke different Greek dialects, and as these mingled
together, a common dialect, Koine, developed and came into general use. Alexander’s conquest of
Egypt, and of Asia as far as India, spread Koine among many peoples, so that it became the
international language and remained such for many centuries. The Greek vocabulary of
the Septuagint was the current Koine of Alexandria, Egypt, during the third and second
centuries B.C.E.

7. (a) How does the Bible testify to the use of Koine in the time of Jesus and his apostles? (b) Why was Koine well
suited for communicating God’s Word?

7 In the days of Jesus and his apostles, Koine was the international language of the Roman realm.
The Bible itself testifies to this fact. When Jesus was nailed to the stake, it was necessary for the
inscription over his head to be posted not only in Hebrew, the language of the Jews, but also in
Latin, the official language of the land, and in Greek, which was spoken on the streets of
Jerusalem almost as freque