Koinē Greek language

Koine Greek, meaning "common dialect," was the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East from around 300 BCE to 600 CE, flourishing during the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine periods. Emerging after the conquests of Alexander the Great, it unified various Greek dialects—primarily Attic, with influences from Ionic, Doric, and Aeolic—to facilitate communication across a vast, multicultural empire. Koine became the language of administration, commerce, and scholarship, and played a pivotal role in the spread of Christianity, as it was the original language of the New Testament and the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Though it eventually evolved into Medieval Greek, Koine remains influential today as the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox Church. Its legacy endures not just in religious texts, but in the foundations it laid for modern Greek and its role in shaping Western thought.