Aramaic
dialects survived into Roman times, however, particularly in Palestine and
Syria. Aramaic had replaced Hebrew as the language of the Jews as early as the 6th century BCE. Certain portions of the
Bible—i.e., the books of Daniel and Ezra—are written in Aramaic, as are the Babylonian and
Jerusalem Talmuds. Among the
Jews, Aramaic was used by the common people, while Hebrew remained the language of religion and government and of the upper class.
Jesus and the Apostles are believed to have spoken Aramaic, and Aramaic-language translations (Targums) of the
Old Testament circulated. Aramaic continued in wide use until about 650 CE, when it was
supplanted by Arabic.
This was written and fact checked by the authors of the Encyclopedia Britannica.