Source: Lisa Katz “About Hebrew” In the 12th century BCE, Hebrew, which earlier may have been almost identical with Phoenician, developed into an independent language. Hebrew was spoken by the Patriarchs during the Biblical period. In the last century BCE, the alphabet of Hebrew, which is still used today, was developed. The Bible was written in Hebrew. In the post-Biblical period, Aramaic gradually replaced Hebrew as the spoken language, but Hebrew was still used as the language of ritual, prayer, […]