INTRODUCTION
Hebrew language,
Semitic language of the Northern Central (also called Northwestern)
group; it is closely related to Phoenician and Moabite, with which it is often
placed by scholars in a Canaanite subgroup. Spoken in ancient times in Palestine,
Hebrew was supplanted by the western dialect of Aramaic beginning
about the 3rd century BC; the language continued to be used as a
liturgical and literary language, however. It was revived as a spoken
language in the 19th and 20th centuries and is the official language
of Israel. Hebrew is the only living
Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived
dead language.
In addition Ordinary Christians
have been doing without biblical scholarship or with very little exposure to
it, for centuries. In most of the church’s settings, few people have even been
able to read the Bible for themselves. Moreover, many countless millions have lived
exemplary lives of charity and piety. It’s plain to see that Christian biblical
scholars are no more saintly than anyone else.
It might be consider that the role of
many churches have assigned to biblical scholarship. Devoted critical
attentions have been on how we can interpret texts since the church’s
inception. When Jesus argues with his various opponents in the Gospels, he’s
often employing the standards of biblical scholarship that applied in his day.
No less so is that the case with Paul and other early Christian writers. Great
theologians such as Origen and Augustine set forth guidelines for responsible
interpretation. One might say that Protestant Christianity married itself to
biblical scholarship from the beginning. Reformers like Luther and Calvin knew
and used the biblical languages, along with early forms of modern biblical
scholarship. Most Christian churches require their pastoral leaders to learn
and practice biblical scholarship. Biblical scholarship is by no means alien to
the church. So to say Hebrew language has been the indispensable language that
guided the biblical scholars in the long run of discovering and understanding
the bible.
THE ORIGIN OF HEBREW LANGUAGE
The modern English word
"Hebrew" is derived from Old French Ebrau, via Latin
from the Greek Ἑβραῖος (Hebraîos)
and Aramaic 'ibrāy, all ultimately derived from Biblical
Hebrew Ibri (עברי), one of
several names for the Israelite (Jewish and Samaritan) people. It is
traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham's
ancestor, Eber, mentioned in Genesis 10:21. The name is believed to
be based on the Semitic root ʕ-b-r (עבר) meaning "beyond", "other
side", "across";[16]interpretations of the term
"Hebrew" generally render its meaning as roughly "from the other
side [of the river/desert]"—i.e., an exonym for the inhabitants
of the land of Israel/Judah, perhaps from the perspective
of Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, or the Transjordan(with the river
referenced perhaps the Euphrates, Jordan, or Litani; or maybe
the northern Arabian
Desert between Babylonia and Canaan). Compare
cognate Assyrian ebru, of identical meaning.
One of the earliest references to
the language's name as "Hebrew" is found in the prologue to
the Book of Ben Sira, from the 2nd century BCE. The Bible does
not use the term "Hebrew" in reference to the language of
the Hebrew people.
THE HISTORY OF HEBREW LANGUAGE
The
history of the Hebrew language is usually divided into four major
periods: Biblical, or Classical, Hebrew, until about the 3rd century BC, in which most
of the Old Testament is written; Mishnaic, or Rabbinic, Hebrew,
the language of the Mishna (a collection of Jewish traditions),
written about AD 200
(this form of Hebrew was never used among the people as a spoken
language); Medieval Hebrew, from about the 6th to the 13th century AD, when many
words were borrowed from Greek, Spanish, Arabic, and other languages;
and Modern Hebrew, the language of Israel in modern times. Scholars
generally agree that the oldest form of Hebrew is that of some of the Old
Testament poems, especially the “Song of Deborah” in chapter 5 of Judges.
The sources of borrowed words that first appeared during this period include
the other Canaanite languages, as well as Akkadian. Hebrew also contains a
small number of Sumerian words borrowed from an Akkadian source. Few traces
of dialects exist in Biblical Hebrew, but scholars believe this to be
the result of Masoretic editing of the text. In addition to the Old Testament,
a small number of inscriptions in Hebrew of the biblical period are extant; the
earliest of these is a short inscription in Phoenician characters dating from
the 9th century BC.
During the early Mishnaic period, some of the
guttural consonants of Biblical Hebrew were combined or confused with one another,
and many nouns were borrowed from Aramaic. Hebrew also borrowed a number of
Greek, Latin, and Persian words.
Use
of the spoken language declined from the 9th century until the 18th century.
Nevertheless, the medieval language underwent development, however
spasmodic, in various directions. The cult of the liturgical poem called
a piyyûṭ (itself
a Greek word) in the 6th–9th century enriched the written vocabulary by giving
fresh meanings to old words and coining new ones, especially in the so-called Kalirian
style; and the Spanish-Hebrew poets of the period 900–1250 followed suit. This
period saw also the addition of about 2,000 or 3,000 scientific, philological,
and philosophical terms; some of these were formed by making new use of old
roots, as in the case of geder,“fence,”
which served also for “definition.” Some were based on existing Hebrew words
like kammût, “quantity,”
from kammāh,“how much?”,
and others were adapted from foreign languages, chiefly Greek and Arabic, such
as ʾaqlîm, “climate,”
and ṭibʿî,“natural.”
Modern
Hebrew, based on the biblical language, contains
many innovations designed to meet modern needs; it is the
only colloquial speech based on a written language. The pronunciation
is a modification of that used by the Sephardic(Hispano-Portuguese) Jews
rather than that of the Ashkenazic(East European) Jews. The old guttural
consonants are not clearly distinguished (except by Oriental Jews) or are lost.
The syntax is based on that of the Mishna. Characteristic of Hebrew
of all stages is the use of word roots consisting usually of three consonants,
to which vowels and other consonants are added to derive words of different
parts of speech and meaning. The language is written from right to left in a
Semitic script of 22 letters.
THE RELEVANCE OF HEBREW
LANGUAGE IN BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP
1. IT INCREASES INTERPRETIVE ACCURACY.
Martyn
Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor by training. He had no formal theological
education. Yet he went on to become one of the twentieth century’s most
influential preachers—and a proponent of studying the Greek and Hebrew. He said
that the languages
. . .
are of great value for the sake of accuracy; no more, that is all. They cannot
guarantee accuracy but they promote it. (Preaching and Preachers, 127–128)
Lloyd-Jones
knew that some preachers would be tempted to treat a sanctuary like a
linguistics classroom, and he discouraged that. But he also understood the
interpretive power of Greek and Hebrew study. This pulpit master, in his
classic work on preaching, goes on to rigorously subsume the value of the
original languages to the end goal of conveying the biblical message to people.
And it’s key that, in his view, they only “promote”—not
“guarantee”—hermeneutical and homiletical accuracy.
Most
time, preachers teach Scripture accurately to groups that included numerous
biblical studies PhDs. I have also heard the opposite; I have sometimes thought
to myself, “Does this guy have any idea who he’s talking to?” (Indeed, the
phrase “the gall!” has only ever come to my mind while listening to preachers.)
If you are a Greek/Hebrew novice, by dabbling into something you don’t know,
you may very well limit the effectiveness of your ministry to the educated by
unwitting inaccuracies.
2. IT MAKES CONTEXTUAL CONNECTIONS WHICH
ARE NECESSARILY OBSCURED BY TRANSLATION.
There’s
an apparently awkward break in the chain of Jesus’ reasoning in English
translations of John 15:1–4. See if you can catch it:
I am
the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does
not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes,
that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I
have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in
me.
One
of these sentences doesn’t at first seem to flow very well with what comes
before and after it. Why does he break out of his vine and fruit talk to
mention, “Already you are clean”? That “already” implies some
contrast with uncleanness—but he was just talking about pruning, not cleaning.
And after his reference to cleaning, he goes back to talking about the main
topic of the paragraph, namely branches and vines.
This
is a perfect example of the kind of thing that knowing Greek can do for you.
The word translated “clean” and the word translated “prunes” in the previous
sentence are from the same Greek root (καθαρος). Jesus isn’t awkwardly
lurching; he’s making a bit of a pun that’s hard to put into English. You can’t
make these sorts of connections (the sorts that are necessarily obscured by
translation) without knowing the original languages.
3. IT RULES OUT SOME INTERPRETATIONS.
Knowing
original languages is more often helpful for ruling out bad interpretations
than anointing true ones. Consider Psalm 14:1.
The
fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable
deeds, there is none who does good. (ESV)
In
the English Bible translation I grew up with, the KJV, the words “There is” are
italicized, meaning that they were supplied by the translators and not present
in the original Hebrew. That’s true.
Numerous
people say over the years that, supposedly, the italics indicate that the
original Hebrew reads, “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘No, God!’” (I
particularly remember hearing this from a clever roommate in college, who won
the smarter-than-thou award for that day.)
But
once Hebrew is learn you discovered that there’s a significant problem with
this argument: the Hebrew word translated “no” doesn’t mean “no,” as in the
opposite of “yes.” It means “non-existence of.” The fool described
in Psalm 14:1 is denying God’s existence, not saying “No” to God.
Knowing
Hebrew didn’t give me the right interpretation of this verse; that was
something I already knew from my English translation(s). It just enabled me to
decisively rule out the urban legend interpretation.
4. IT ENABLES US TO FOLLOW COMMENTARIES.
Learning
Greek and/or Hebrew will give you access to some of the best and most detailed
Bible teaching in existence: commentaries. As Moisés Silva, a linguist
influential in the field biblical studies, put it, “While we are blessed with a
multitude of fine commentaries, they can prove to be almost useless if the
linguistic arguments is involved.” (278)
Good
commentaries dig into the grammar and vocabulary of Hebrew or Greek. They’re
easier to follow if you know what’s going on, particularly when commentaries
get technical.
Most
users of commentaries are not going to know Greek or (certainly) Hebrew better
than the major scholarly commentators. I do defer to them, perhaps more often
than I realize. But they don’t always agree, and I have no hope of weighing one
against another if I can’t read Greek or Hebrew.
5. IT WILL HELP US IMPRESS PEOPLE WITH
YOUR SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE.
If
you learn Greek or Hebrew you will put people in their place and be able to
lord your learning over them. They won’t dream of contradicting or even
doubting your theology—because you, after all, can read Greek. And if you can
read Hebrew your vats will be filled with new wine and you’ll finally persuade
all your theological opponents that they’re wrong and your church will grow and
your car will stop having problems and you’ll be happy, healthy, and wise.
Most
of the time you hear preachers explicitly reference Greek or Hebrew—most of
the time—they do a bit more harm than good. Sometimes the whole
reason they are appealing to Greek is that their interpretation is tenuous and
they have to buttress it with a rhetorical appeal that they know will exceed
their listeners’ capacity to contradict. Usually, however, their interpretation
of the passage is fine, but their references to Greek and/or Hebrew have the
unintended consequence of giving their hearers permission to leave all the
Bible study to the professionals.
You
won’t get credit for knowing Greek and Hebrew when you use them well; people
listening to you will likely not realize what labors it took to acquire your
interpretive skill. But the effect will be there. It does make a major
difference; with the practiced eye of someone who does know
the languages.
Likemany languages, Hebrew has many loan words from English. Nothing like Spanish
of course. But, because almost all Israelis learn English, English speaking
tourists flood their country and because Israelis are the most connected
country to the Internet, and because Israelis are the most scientifically and
technologically advanced country beside America (in terms of Industry), English
words make it into Hebrew quite frequently.
Modern
Hebrew syntax is based on SVO (subject verb object) order just like English.
This is a big help! Also, there are only three tenses!!! That’s right: present,
past and future. There are only two genders—no neuter. There is no present
tense for the verb to be. You just say, I happy instead
of I am happy. (one less conjugation).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Study of the Hebrew
language has an ancient history. Since Hebrew is the
original language of the Hebrew Bible (known as the Torah and Tanakh),
it is therefore a language that has always been central
to Judaism and valued by the Jewish people for over three
thousand years and later by Christian scholars as well.
Hebrew had
ceased to be an everyday spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE,
declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser
extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among
elites and immigrants. Hebrew survived into the medieval period as the language
of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry.
Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language. It
became the lingua franca of Palestine's Jews, and subsequently of the State of
Israel. According to Ethnologue, in 1998, it was the language of 5 million
people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest
Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, mostly from Israel.
In Biblical study, much academic work is written in Hebrew
and not translated. For the seriously committed Biblical scholar, knowing
Modern Hebrew will give insight to the Biblical text through modern
scholarship.
Hebrew
was the first written language (with an alphabet representing sounds and with
grammar). It is the only “dead” language to be resurrected and become a
national language spoken by an entire country! Italians can’t read Latin and
Greek’s can’t read ancient Greek, but Hebrew speakers can read from the Dead
Sea Scrolls. What could be more fascinating than that? How about the
fulfillment of prophecy? In Jeremiah God says, “For then I will restore to the
peoples a pure language that they all may call on the name of the LORD, to
serve Him with one accord.”
REFERENCES
"Hebrew"
in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edit. F.L. Cross,
first edition (Oxford, 1958), 3rd edition (Oxford 1997). The Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian Church which once said, in 1958 in its
first edition, that Hebrew "ceased to be a spoken language around the
fourth century BCE", now says, in its 1997 (third) edition, that Hebrew
"continued to be used as a spoken and written language in the New
Testament period".
Grenoble,
Leonore A.; Whaley, Lindsay J. (2005). Saving Languages: An
Introduction to Language Revitalization. United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0521016520. Retrieved 28
March 2017. Hebrew is cited by Paulston et al. (1993:276) as 'the
only true example of language revival.'
Zuckermann,Ghil'ad (2003). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in IsraeliHebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1403917232.
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