Greek in Talmudic Palestine Daniel Sperber Some seventy years have passed since Prof. Saul Lieberman first published his seminal Greek in Jewish Palestine (1942), and over a hundred years since the appearance of Samuel Krauss’ great “Lehnworter”, a dictionary- concordance of Greek and Latin loanwords in rabbinic literature (1899). In the ensuing period a wealth of papyrological and epigraphic material has been discovered, greatly enriching our knowledge of Koine Greek. Furthermore, many classic rabbinic texts are now available in critical editions, and newly discovered tracts have been published revealing additional lexical items, thus broadening the boundaries of our knowledge of rabbinic parlance. This study seeks to continue in the paths laid out by the earlier pioneers, adding lexical entries to Krauss’ work, analyzing morphological changes in the process of loaning from one language to another, examining dialectical characteristics, patterns of corruption, and thus explaining many hitherto misunderstood passages in rabbinic literature. In addition, the study points to differing degrees of rabbinic bilingualism, noting greater and lesser concentrations of foreign words in different geographic areas, socio-economic strata and realms of social activity. While this study answers many hitherto unresolved questions, it also poses many new ones, opening up fresh areas for future research. Professor Daniel Sperber is the Milan Roven Professor of Talmudic Studies and former Dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-Ilan University. He is currently President of The Ludwig and Erica Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies at Bar-Ilan University. Professor Sperber was awarded the “Israel Prize” in Jewish Studies in 1992. He is the author of over twenty-five works on various aspects of Rabbinic research, has edited and commented on Talmudic texts, and has written on Rabbinic law, customs, history and philology. Among his books published by Bar-Ilan University Press: The Jewish Life Cycle: Custom, Lore and Iconography (2008); Material Culture in Eretz Israel during the Talmudic Period, Vols. 1 & 2 (1993, 2005); Magic and Folklore in Rabbinic Literature (1994); Nautica Talmudica (1986); Roman Palestine 200-400 - Money and Prices (1974, 1991); Roman Palestine 200-400 - The Land (1978); A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Legal Terms in Rabbinic Literature (1984).