614 



HEBREW LANGUAGE 



and in a much more advanced condition in the 

 Mishna(c. 200 A.D.). 



The character in which Hebrew was written 

 was the ancient Semitic alphabet, common over 

 much of the East, the origin of which is traced 

 by some to Egyptian hieroglyphs, and by others 

 to other sources (see ALPHABET). The oldest and 

 most beautiful example of this character is the 

 Moabite Inscription (c. 900 B.C. ; see MOABITES); 

 a somewhat ruder form appears in the inscription 

 from the Siloam tunnel, prooably of the age of Ahaz 

 or Hezekiah (740-700 B.C.; found in 1880; see 

 Proc. Soc. Bib. Archceol. 1882). The latter was 

 executed at their own hand by the workmen who 

 cut the tunnel, and is naturally less artistic, though 

 extremely interesting, as showing how extended 

 the art of writing was at so early a time (Isa. x. 

 19). In the Moabite monument the same letter 

 appears in several forms, which suggests either 

 great practice on the part of the sculptor, or else 

 that he faithfully copied a model supplied him by 

 the pen, in this case a facile one. The character 

 appears in a bigger, more robust form in the Phoeni- 

 cian inscriptions e.g. of Eshmunazar. Somewhat 

 modified it is Samaritan ; in south Arabia it is 

 Himyaritic or Sabean ; and from there it passed to 

 Abyssinia, and is Ethiopic. The Syriac and Arabic 

 are the same letter in cursive forms. The Arainean 

 influence on southern Palestine introduced not 

 only its dialect but also its script. The present 

 Hebrew square character is in a somewhat orna- 

 mental shape a cursive form of the ancient 

 alphabet adopted by the Arameans ; the article 

 ALPHABET shows both the Phoenician and the 

 later square Hebrew character. The monuments 

 show this Aramean cursive in various forms 

 of development. Jewish tradition ciscribes its in- 

 troduction to Ezra, a tradition which expresses 

 merely the facts that a change took place in the 

 letter employed, and that this change was posterior 

 to the return from exile. The use of the letter no 

 doubt crept in gradually, just as the use of the 

 Aramaic dialect did. The ancient letter is still 

 seen on coins of the later Maccabean princes. Some 

 deviations of the Septuagint from our present 

 Hebrew text seem explainable from the supposition 

 that their MSS. were written in the ancient char- 

 acter ; while, on the other hand, some discrepancies 

 rather suggest MSS. in the square letter. The 

 words of Christ, ' one jot or tittle,' have been 

 thought to show that the square character, in which 

 y (i or yod) is much the smallest letter of the 

 alphabet, had long been in use. 



The history of the language would not be com- 

 plete without one or two additional facts. (1) 

 In Semitic languages the consonants alone are 

 usually written. Of course, no language could be 

 spoken, and no writing read without vowel-sounds, 

 but no signs for these sounds existed. Certain 

 weak consonants, however viz. h, w, y, were early 

 used to indicate the place of long vowels, particu- 

 larly at the end of words, and also of diphthongal 

 sounds ( ai = 0, au = 6) in the middle of words. 

 Already in the Moabite stone final vowels are so 

 marked, and occasionally diphthongs within words. 

 Phoenician, on the contrary, uses such signs very 

 little. Ancient Hebrew agreed with Moabite in its 

 practice, as appears from the Siloam inscription. 

 The use of these so-called vowel-letters was prob- 

 ably scanty and fluctuating in early times, but 

 became more regular afterwards. Unfortunately, 

 we have no guarantee that transcribers were careful 

 to preserve the antique spelling. Our present text 

 is too uniform to be supposed to have preserved the 

 varieties of different ages, and it is evident that the 

 MSS. of the Septuagint translators in a multitude 

 of cases were without the medial vowels, and in 

 some cases without the final vowels, now present 



in the Hebrew text. In the end of the 1st or early 

 in the 2d century a standard text was adopted, and 

 modernising of the spelling in the main ceased. 

 Peculiarities were henceforth registered, not effaced. 

 This period during which the consonantal text was 

 treated extends to the era of the Talmud ( c. 500 A. D. ). 

 During its course a multitude of works were pro- 

 duced e.g. Midrashim, or homiletical expositions, 

 especially of the books of the Pentateuch ; the 

 Mishna (200 A.D. ), a code of traditional law ; and 

 the tracts composing the Talmud, which are com- 

 mentaries on the Mishnic law, but containing much 

 haggadic or edifying matter. (2) Neither Jerome 

 (d. 420) nor the Talmud knows anything but the 

 consonantal text. The example of Syrian scholars 

 and necessity led, however, to the invention of a 

 very complete system of external signs for the 

 vowel-sounds of the language. This is the Mas- 

 soretic system of points, now printed in our Bibles. 

 Its authors are unknown, and also the age at which 

 it was completed. Minute as it is, it can make 

 little pretension to represent the pronunciation of 

 the ancient living language. The pronunciation of 

 a language during a period of nearly a thousand 

 years in disuse must have undergone changes ; the 

 Septuagint pronounces in many cases differently 

 from the present text ; and, in point of fact, the 

 vocalisation represents not the pronunciation of a 

 spoken language, but that of the solemn intoned 

 reading in the service of the synagogue. 



About the 10th century a new impulse was given 

 to the study of Hebrew by the example of the 

 Arabic grammarians. The interest of the latter 

 was to Y>egin with a purely religious one i.e. to 

 explain the Koran. Even the earliest collections of 

 poetry had this religious object. The poetry of the 

 desert was accepted as the purest Arabic, and it 

 was collected and studied with the view of illus- 

 trating the syntax of the Koran. By-and-by gram- 

 mar came to be cultivated for its own sake, and the 

 ancient poetry studied for the sake of its intrinsic 

 charms. In emulation of their Arabic confreres, a 

 school of Hebrew grammarians arose, to which be- 

 long such names as Sa'dia of the Fayyum, Chayyuj 

 (1000), Abu'l-Walid Merwan ibn Janach, Abenezra 

 (d. 1167), Dav. Kimchi (d. 1235). Where Arabic 

 was not used a neo-Hebraic language was employed 

 by these scholars, greatly a return to biblical 

 Hebrew, and in this many commentaries were 

 composed, as by Abenezra, Kimchi, and Rashi of 

 Troyes (d. 1105). At the revival of letters Chris- 

 tian scholars became apt pupils of the Jews e.g. 

 John Reuchlin (d. 1522). In the next century the 

 chief seat of Hebrew learning was Switzerland, 

 where flourished Buxtorf the Elder (d. 1629); and 

 in the century following Holland, the most famous 

 representative of the Dutch school being Alb. 

 Schultens. In the 19th century the most distin- 

 guished promoters of Hebrew learning have been 

 Gesenius of Halle and Ewald of Gottingen. 



The following is Gen. i. 1-3 in Hebrew : 



:sn nxi own n 



nm Dinn 



inhi inn nrvn 



T : T 



narni 



See Gesenius, Gesch. der Heb. Sprache (1815); Kenan, 

 Hist. Gen. dcs Langues Stmitiques (4th ed. 1863). 



MODERN HEBREW. A few observations may 

 be added, in conclusion, on the use of Hebrew 

 as a spoken and written language among modern 

 Jews. Hebrew has continued down to the present 

 day as the language of the synagogue. Except 

 in the Reform communities of Germany and 

 America, public and even private worship is 



