 The current numeral system is also known as the "Hebrew alphabetic numerals" to contrast with earlier systems of writing numerals used in classical antiquity.These systems were inherited from usage in the Aramaic and Phoenician scripts, attested from c. 800 BC in the so-called Samaria ostraca and sometimes known as "Hebrew-Aramaic numerals", ultimately derived from the Egyptian Hieratic numerals.The Greek system was adopted in Hellenistic Judaism and had been in use in Greece since about the 5th century BC.