ITKRREW LANGUAGE 



613 



Hebrew LaiiKiuitfe. The won! Hebrew 



('iliri) is mi adjective, formed, according to the 

 (Mil Testament, from llclicr ('<//), a descendant 

 of Sin-in ((li-n. \. -j-j 24), who was the ancestor of 

 Aliiaham ((Jen. \i. I.' _'(>). The Septuagint, how- 

 ever, already renders (Jen. xiv. 13, ' Al>raliani the 

 >T' (i.e. of 'the river,' though Origen explains 

 (In- name from 'crossing' Mesopotamia towards 

 ('.(ii.-ian), and Aqiiila translates 'the dweller on 

 tin- oilier side.' probably of tlie Euphrates, though it 

 might be the Jordan. The word ' Hebrew' is used 

 both of individuals and the people when antithesis 

 to other nationalities is expressed (Jon. i. 9; 

 I'liil. iii. 5; Gen. xxxix. 14; xl. 15; Exod. i. 16; 

 ii. (i, &c. ), 'Israel' being more a domestic name, 

 often having religious significance. As a national 

 name, Israel belonged specially to the northern king- 

 dom, of which it is used ireely in the Moabite 

 Inscription (e.g. lines 5, 11, 14). 



The phrase ' Hebrew language ' does not occur in 

 the Old Testament. In the earliest reference to 

 the speech (Isa. xix. 18) it is called the ' language 

 of Canaan,' and in another passage, 'referring to 

 events of the same period, 'Judean' or Jewish 

 (2 Kings, xviii. 26, 28 ; fsa, xxxvi. 11, 13 ; cf. Neh. 

 xiii. 24). This passage is interesting as showing 

 the linguistic attainments of the Assyrian officials 

 and others of this age. The Rabshakeh could 

 speak Hebrew, and Hezekiah's officers understood 

 Aramaic, which appears to have been the language 

 of diplomacy and commerce at this time, a position 

 to which it would naturally attain, from the fact 

 that the Aramean peoples lay along the great 

 trade routes between east and west. The name 

 ' Hebrew ' is first used of the language of the 

 Old Testament in the prologue to Ecclesiasticus 

 (c. 130 B.C.), and then in the New Testament 

 (Rev. ix. 11). After the dissolution of the Jewish 

 state Aramaic more and more made encroachment 

 in Palestine, Dan. ii. 4-vii. 28, Ezra, iv. 8-vi. 18, 

 and Jer. x. 11 being written in that dialect, to 

 which also belong the words Jegar-Sahadutha, 

 'heap of witness' (Gen. xxxi. 47). Gradually it 

 superseded Hebrew as the spoken language, and, 

 though mixed with elements of Hebrew, was the 

 dialect in use in the time of our Lord, as it had 

 been for a long time previously. All the words 

 reported as spoken by him (such as talitha kounti 

 or koum, lema shebaktdni) are Aramaic. The 

 name Hebrew was thus given to two languages, 

 the ancient Hebrew, and the more modern Aramaic 

 in actual use, though chiefly to the latter (John 

 v. 2 ) : ' their proper tongue,"' to which Akeldama 

 belongs (Acts, i. 19), is Aramaic. Which of the 

 two languages is meant, Acts, xxi. 40, xxii. 2, 

 xxvi. 14, may be doubtful. 



The Hebrew language is one of the family of 

 speeches since EichhorrPs time usually called Shem- 

 itic or Semitic, the peoples speaking them being 

 in the main descendants of Shem. The family 

 has four great divisions : ( 1 ) the Northern or 

 Aramaic (Syriac or Eastern, and so-called Chaldee 

 or Western Aramaic and Samaritan); (2) Middle 

 or Hebrew (including Phoenician and Moabite); 

 (3) Southern or Arabic (embracing Sabean or 

 South Arabic, and Ethiopic); (4) To these must 

 now l>e added an Eastern or Assyro-Babylonian 

 division (see SEMITIC LANGUAGES). Hebrew 

 shares with its sister-languages these and other 

 peculiarities : roots with three consonants ; vowels 

 having no significance as stem-letters ; two verbal 

 forma for the expression of tense ; two genders ; 

 the attachment of the oblique cases of personal 

 pronouns to nouns and verlw in the form of 

 snllixes ; an inability, except in proper names, 

 to form compounds, whether verbal or nominal ; 

 and a syntax distinguished by simple co-ordina- 

 tion of clauses by means of and, where other 



languages subordinate with a multiplicity of con- 

 junction*. At a remote period we iniiMt uppo*e 

 primitive Semitic upoken by a united, homo- 

 geneous neople, which afterwards separated in 

 various directions, each section retaining and 

 developing some of the originally common ele- 

 mrnts of the ton-lie, until gradually, under 

 many influences of climate and conditions of life, 

 the great dialects acquired distinctness from one 

 another. In this way some primitive elements 

 would be retained by one family and others by 

 another, while each would move along new lines of 

 development, due to its idiosyncracies and circum- 

 stances, as Hebrew, for example, expresses ' west* 

 by 'sea.' Even in the earliest form in which we 

 observe Hebrew it shows marks of linguistic decad- 

 ence. It has almost entirely renounced nominal' 

 case-endings ; given up the use of the dual, except 

 in a few nouns; is in process of substituting the 

 reflexive for the passive (a process completed in 

 Aramaic and Ethiopic); and has lost the conscious- 

 ness of the strict sense of its elementary moods. In 

 short, literary Hebrew is already nearly at the same 

 level as vulgar Arabic, as distinguished from 

 inflected Arabic, or as modern English is compared 

 with Anglo-Saxon. On the other hand it has some 

 peculiar excellences, as the greater freedom in 

 regard to the place of words in the sentence, and 

 the singular tense usag^e known as vav converfrive, 

 of which, however, it is now known to have no 

 monopoly, but to share it with the language of 

 Moab. 



Beyond differences of pronunciation and usages 

 peculiar to separate localities, ' dialects ' can hardly 

 have existed in Hebrew. In the north a shorter 

 form of the relative appears, she or sha (Ass. 

 sha) e.g. Judges, v. 7. This is common in the 

 Canticles (of disputed date), and in later books, as 

 Ecclesiastes, and usual in post-biblical Hebrew. 

 The Ephraimites appear to nave shared the usual 

 Shemitic tendency to confuse sh and * (Judges, 

 xii. 6 ) ; and in the south Amos ( vi. 8 ; viii. 8 ) shows 

 another common failing, that of confusing the 

 gutturals, a thing said to have gone to an extreme 

 in Galilee in the age of Christ, and abundantly 

 exemplified in Assyrian. So far as the literature 

 of the language is concerned, only two periods can 

 be distinguished : ( 1 ) from the earliest times to the 

 restoration from exile (538), and (2) from the 

 restoration to our era (see BlBLE). It is true that 

 writers on the borders of the exile, such as Jeremiah 

 and Ezekiel, show a tendency to employ Aramaic 

 words and forms ; but, on the other hand, writings 

 of the exile period, as Isa. xl.-lxvi. and much 

 else, are splendid examples of Hebrew composition. 

 The restored community in Judah would of course 

 still speak and write Hebrew. In the north of the 

 country, however, the policy of Assyria had long 

 ago settled a numl>er or colonists, speaking mainly 

 Aramaic. When Palestine came under the influ- 

 ence of the Syro-Greek kingdom the Aramaic 

 pressure would become greater. And thus gradu- 

 ally Hebrew receded before the Aramaic, until by 

 the time of the Maccabees, or considerably earlier, 

 the latter had become the spoken language. 

 Among the learned, however, the ancient tongue 

 was still cultivated and written, though naturally 

 not in its ancient purity, nor without many new 

 developments. These new elements are of several 

 kinds : first, nominal and verbal forms, partly 

 absolutely novel, but mostly a great extension of 

 forms occurring rarely in the classical language ; 

 and secondly, a considerably altered vocabulary. 

 drawn partly perhaps from a lower stratum of 

 popular speech than that touched by the biblical 

 writers, but greatly from the Aramaic. Examples 

 of this new literary, though degenerate, Hebrew 

 may be seen in its earliest form in Ecclesiastea, 



