Why Jewish Aramaic is Often Called 'Hebrew' by Early Christian Commentators

The question of why the Aramaic spoken by Jews is often called Hebrew by early Christian authors has no satisfactory answer at present. Tentatively, it could be explained as an ETHNIC term, meaning the language spoken by Jews and Samaritans. In favour of this would be the fact that Palestinian Christians spoke exactly the same cluster of dialects as Palestinian Jews and Samaritans, so the term “Hebrew” must be ethnic, not linguistic. Note also that Samaritans referred to themselves by this epithet, and that the title “Epistle to the Hebrews” means “Epistle to the Samaritans”. In Rabbinic usage “Hebrew script” כתב עברי means the original Hebrew alphabet, and as it was a matter of observation that the Phoenicians were still using the same script, the term : Hebrew” can only be ethnic in this context. (The square script borrowed from Aramaic is called כתב ליבונאה probably in reference to the shape).

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