In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language

9. Post-Biblical Hebrew

Chapter 9 Post-Biblical Hebrew Background In the last chapter we saw suggestions that Hebrew changed during the Persian period (following the first exile in 586 B.C.E.) and the Hellenistic period (in the 4th century B.C.E. following the Greek empire’s expansion under Alexander the Great to include all of the Near East) into a dialect we called Late Biblical Hebrew. We now turn our attention to what happened to Hebrew in the centuries that followed. The official written language of the Persian empire was Aramaic — another Semitic language, also usually written in what we call “Hebrew” characters. (A historically more accurate naming scheme might call the characters “Aramaic,” and note that Hebrew writers borrowed the script from Aramaic writers.) The official language of the Greek empire was, not surprisingly, Greek, though Aramaic remained important. After the first exile, the Hebrew-speaking Jewish population quickly learned and spoke Aramaic. And shortly after the arrival of the Greeks, they learned Greek as well. It is clear that Hebrew (probably in the form of Late Biblical Hebrew) remained a literary and religious language during all of this, lasting at least into the 2nd century C.E. But beyond that, we have more questions than answers. Some scholars steadfastly maintain that Hebrew ceased to be spoken shortly after the exile, while others claim that it was a commonly spoken language until the 2nd century C.E. The controversy probably stems from asking the wrong question, namely, “Which language did the Jews speak?” A better question reflects the widespread practice throughout most of the world and throughout most of history of speaking more than one language. We thus ask, “Which 165 166 Post-Biblical Hebrew languages did the Jews speak?” We answer that during the Persian period they spoke Hebrew and Aramaic; during the Hellenistic period they spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. With this broader understanding, we need not see a conflict between the claim that the Jews learned and spoke Aramaic and the claim that they spoke Hebrew. They could well have spoken both. Because the role of Aramaic is so important to the development of Hebrew, we should take some time to understand some of the issues surrounding the interaction between Aramaic, Hebrew, and the Jews. Aramaic The issue of the exact relationship between Aramaic and Hebrew is a hotly debated one. Aramaic as a language can be clearly traced back to the 10th or 9th century B.C.E., thanks to an inscription (now available only in facsimile, the original having been destroyed during World War II). Numerous examples of Aramaic dating from the 9th or 8th centuries B.C.E. onward attest to the increasingly widespread use of Aramaic. Aramaic in the Bible A handful of references to Aramaic in the Bible may also suggest its widespread use. For example, in a passage appearing twice, once in 2 Kings 18:26 and once in Isaiah 36:11, Eliakim (also known as Johoiakim) tells a messenger to “speak to your servants in Aramaic.” (The Septuagint calls Aramaic “the Syrian language,” reflecting a general trend in the later books of the Septuagint to equate “Aram” with “Syria.”) Ezra 4:7 makes reference to a letter “written in Aramaic” and “translated in Aramaic.” Daniel 2:4 tells of people speaking to the king “in Aramaic,” followed by a lengthy passage actually in Aramaic. But three reasons make it hard to use the Bible to understand history. First, the Bible was written before history as a science had been established . The Bible contains what clearly seem to be historical accounts, but they are freely mixed with such non-historical aspects as theology and myth. While it is great fun to look at Biblical accounts and then use them to understand history, most serious historians use the Bible for the more limited task of confirming what they already know. Secondly, we donotknow whenthe bookswereactually written, edited, and so forth. While we’d like to believe, for example, that the book of Ezra was written around the time that the person Ezra lived (the 5th century B.C.E.) we do not know for sure, and we certainly don’t know the extent to Post-Biblical Hebrew 167 which later authors may have altered the original text. Thirdly, we do not always fully understand the language of the Biblical accounts. Returning again to Ezra, the claim that...