[MarkBsnr]

Yes, that seems a good argument, but Yiddish and Ladino were used by exiled Jewish communities long after this point in time, and they include much Hebrew, little Aramaic and almost no Greek (’Sanhedrin’ is a great example).

The emerging Christian movement angered the Jews and started to drive them back to using Hebrew, to separate them from the Greek of the Church.

And the fact remains that literate Jews on the whole were unimpressed with the Greek books. Perhaps the prominence of the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria have skewed the history of the Land of Israel.

Not just Alexandria. Everywhere outside the Middle East, and most places in it.

[jjotto]

The tale gets taller and taller. First a hypothetical Council of Jamnia that changed canon, then ‘pressure’ that changed the basics of communication in widely scattered independent communities.

I suppose if one can get from Jesus is The Messiah to Mary is the Mother of God, no bridge is too far.