HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 2755 HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 



country and gradually drove the Canaanites 

 out of their possessions. After the Exile, 

 Aramaic, closely allied to Hebrew and yet a 

 distinct language, became the current medium 

 of communication,' while Hebrew became more 

 a learned and a classical language, the language 

 used in the cult and in religious literature. 



The second period may be called the Rab- 

 binical, because of the predominance of the 

 Rabbi as the priestly guide of the people. 

 The great production of Rabbinical Judaism 

 was a vast collection of laws and commen- 

 taries known as the Talmud. In this com- 

 pilation the laws themselves, known as the 

 M'ishna, were written in Hebrew, whereas 

 the commentaries (Gemara), representing dis- 

 cussions of the Rabbis on the laws, were in 

 Aramaic, the current speech even among the 

 learned classes. Besides the Mishna, there are 

 great collections of homiletical expansions of 

 the Biblical books, corresponding in a measure 

 to modern sermons, which were likewise writ- 

 ten in Hebrew. This second period extends to 

 about the seventh century. 



Under the influence of the Mohammedans, 

 spreading throughout the East and extending 

 into Western Europe, the Jews in many lands 

 adopted Arabic as their language, and as a 

 consequence, beginning with about the eighth 

 century and reaching to the twelfth, there is 

 a considerable body of philosophical, poetical, 

 grammatical and legalistic literature by Jews, 

 as well as translations of the Old Testament 

 into Arabic. During all this period, however, 

 Hebrew never died out as a classical language, 

 for it was spoken at least by the educated 

 among the Jews in all lands, and, with the 

 check to the further extension of Mohammed- 

 anism and the spread of the Jews to such 

 lands as France, Germany, England and Hol- 

 land, which were not touched by the Moham- 

 medan movement, it was not long before the 

 use of Hebrew as a medium of communica- 

 tion between Jews of various lands naturally 

 led to renewed interest in the old historical 

 speech. 



The third period in the history of Hebrew 

 extends from the Middle Ages down to the 

 end of the eighteenth century. Most of the 

 literature produced in this period was of a 

 theological character commentaries and super- 

 commentaries to the Old Testament, to the 

 Mishna and Gemara, ritual compilations, gram- 

 matical works, religious and, to a limited ex- 

 tent, secular poetry. With the gradual libera- 

 tion of the Jews in the countries of Europe 



through the growth of democracy, Hebrew was 

 replaced largely by the languages spoken in 

 the countries in which Jews lived. It was nat- 

 ural that even during the centuries when the 

 Jews of Europe had no rightful citizenship, 

 they had adopted, for purposes of ordinary 

 intercourse, the languages spoken in European 

 countries. Now, with the advent of a new era, 

 the language of the country became also the 

 literary medium, and Hebrew retained its place 

 only as the language of the ritual in the -syna- 

 gogues. 



Within our own days, however, there has 

 been a renewal of interest in Hebrew as cur- 

 rent speech, which marks, therefore, the fourth 

 period in the history of the language. That 

 revival began in Russia a few decades ago, and 

 has been largely aided by the spread of the 

 Zionist Movement (which see). At the pres- 

 ent time Hebrew is becoming more and more 

 the common language of intercourse among 

 the Jewish colonists who are settling in Pales- 

 tine, while in such countries as Russia and 

 Galicia Hebrew is also spoken in wide circles. 

 It is doubtful, however, whether Hebrew will 

 gain any foothold in Western or Southern 

 Europe or on the American continent, where 

 Jews take on the color of the life about them. 



Naturally the most valuable section of He- 

 brew literature is that comprised in what is 

 called the Old Testament. This collection, 

 divided conventionally into thirty-nine books, 

 embodies the early myths, the early and later 

 traditions and the historical records of the He- 

 brews down to the period of the Exile, the 

 orations of the great Hebrew prophets, extend- 

 ing from the ninth century to about the end 

 of the fifth century, a great collection of reli- 

 gious poetry and such individual books as the 

 "Song oj Songs," Ruth, Lamentations and 

 Ecclesiastes. A small section of the Old Testa- 

 ment is written in Aramaic, such as large por- 

 tions of the book of Daniel and portions of 

 the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These pro- 

 ductions, for this reason alone, belong to the 

 post-Exilic period. The oldest specimens of 

 Hebrew literature are the poetical bits in the 

 Pentateuch and in some of the historical 

 books, such as the "Song of Lamech," at the 

 end of the fourth chapter of Genesis, the 

 "Song of the Well" and martial ditties in the 

 book of Numbers (chapter XXI), and the 

 "Song of Deborah," in the fifth chapter of 

 Judges. None of these productions, however, is 

 older than 1000 B. c., while a great bulk of the 

 Old Testament literature dates from the eieht^ 



