Greek on Coins

[Aarmale]

I know that many of the coins during the Roman rule of Judea were printed in Greek.  The're not Greeks  .  Why would the coins be in Greek?  Did the Romans or Jews speak it?
 

Thanks,

Aarmale

[SVLLAIMP]

The short and fast answer to this question is that Greek was the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Empire and indeed long before and after.

[Danny S. Jones]

Judea was controlled by the Seleucid Dynasty which tried in vain to Hellenize the Jews. (Force the Greek lifestyle, religion and customs on the conquered nation). Long after this time period, Greek was still used as a trade language, and the Hasmoneans, Herodians and Judean procurators were still trying to Hellenize Judea. Part of this process was in their coinage. To appease the conservative elements of Judaism, the ancient, already archaic and disused proto-Hebrew language was used for inscriptions on coinage, yet Greek was also used on coins to further the Hellenistic ambitions of the Judean leaders and to declare to the rest of the world that Judea was indeed a "modern," Hellenized nation... much to the displeasure of the general population.

This struggle between traditional Judean religion and culture against the Hellenization movement, along with the independent spirit and desire for freedom from the yoke of foreign oppression was the catalyst that started the first Jewish revolt (ending in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70) and subsequent conflicts such as the Bar Kokhba revolt.

The fact that we find both Hebrew and Greek on the Judean coinage is not unusual for the time period, yet has much historical significance to the events that occurred in history of Israel.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Anyone who could read doubtless knew Greek, and the Romans wouldn't have spoken Hebrew. For that matter many of Jannaeus' coins have bilingual inscriptions, in both Greek and Aramaic.

[Danny S. Jones]

Aside from my aforementioned references to the attempts at the hellenization of Judea, the Greek language was lingua franca of that era, being the international language of trade and business. Even the Romans communicated in Greek in many of their numerous provinces to subjects who could not speak Latin. Many Roman provincial political documents exist in Greek.  It was a world language. As Robert said, those who were literate could speak Greek. (i.e. the Apostle Paul in the New Testament) This is why the New Testament of Christianity, which sprang from the heart of Judea, was written and preserved not in Hebrew, but in Koine Greek.

[Aarmale]

Interesting.  What was up with the Greeks though?  Who invented the language?