Changes

Yet while the Jewish [[canon]] of Scripture was being developed (to finally be defined at the Jamnia (Yavneh) on the Mediterraenean coast of Israel at 90A.D.), the Jewish literature called now the Intertestamental or Apocryphal made its appearance. Jews now also lived in great numbers outside of the Land of Israel, particularly in Mesopotamia (the Land between the Rivers of the Euphrates and the Tigris), and in Alexandria, Egypt. Mesopotamian Jewry, with its large core from the exile to Babylon continually added to, was mainly Aramaic speaking while Egyptian Jewry was Greek speaking. Aramaic Jewry began the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into [[Aramaic]], this came to be known as the [[Peshitta]] ("simple" or common). This development was accelerated particularly when the queen of [[Adiabene]], Helena (Shlomzion HaMalka, converted with others to Judaism. The Old Testament Peshitta (there is also the New Testament Peshitta as believers in Jesus translated the Greek New Testament into Aramaic) contains influence from the Jewish literature known as the [[Targum]]. Queen Helena was buried in Jerusalem around 70 A.D.  The Aexandrian Jews also translated, even earlier, the Hebrew Scriptures into their language, Greek. This is known as the Septuagint (translated by 70 or 72 Jewish scholars). The Septuaginta was widely used by Greek speaking Jews and was naturally turned to by the Greek speaking believers in Jesus. As these believers in Jesus turned to various passages in the Old Testament that pointed to Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, the Septuagint gradually dropped out of general Jewish usage, and instead three translations, came into use, translations which were considered more literal - those of Symmachus, Aquilas, and Theodotios, all converts to Judaism. Around the same time of this process, the Rabbinical School at Jamnia (Yavneh) under Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, decided that what was canonical for Judaism was only those books which had already been accepted as Scripture and were found in the Hebrew language. This eliminated most of the Apocrypha (but the book of Ecclesiasticus - "Ben Sirach" - has now been found in Hebrew and considered canonical by the Dead Sea community of Jews) as well as elevating the ''Hebrew'' Scriptures over just the Scriptures of Israel no matter in which language. Not only did the Septuagint drop out of Jewish usage, but so did the other Greek translations.