The Story of Hebrew by Lewis Glinert (review)

In the volume presently under review, Glinert surveys how the Hebrew language functioned as a political, social, and religious phenomenon from biblical times up through the present day. Recent years have seen the study of Jewish languages develop into an academic subdiscipline in and of itself, with Brill's launch of its Journal of Jewish Languages and the 2016 publication of its Handbook of Jewish Languages (edited by Lily Kahn and Aaron D. Rubin for the series Handbooks in Linguistics). Though the present volume (and the series of which it is a part) is aimed at a general audience, there is much in here for Hebraists of all types.

In chap. 1 ("Let There Be Hebrew"), G. deals with the period roughly up through 500 b.c.e., looking at the Hebrew Bible's awareness of language in cases such as wordplay, folk etymologies of names, and even atbash. It also briefly discusses Hebrew inscriptional material from this period.

Chapter 2 ("Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome") covers the millennium between 500 b.c.e. and 500 c.e., which G. concedes encompasses an enormous number of political and social changes for a single chapter. This includes, inter alia, the postexilic restoration under the Persians, the advent of Hellenism, the formation of the Hebrew canon (not to mention Second Temple literature), the growth of rabbinic literature, and a few rather consequential military revolts! Though G. describes this chapter's unifying theme as the "unremitting competition" Hebrew faced from Greek, Latin, and Aramaic (p. 23), this topic probably could have been better served with two chapters.

Chapter 3 ("Saving the Bible and Its Hebrew") is rather short and describes the efforts of the Masoretes during the eighth to tenth centuries c.e. to record biblical reading traditions, in terms of both pronunciation and cantillation. It also describes efforts to standardize the Jewish prayer book.

Chapter 4 ("The Sephardic Classical Age") describes the period from approximately 900 c.e. to 1492, during which time Hebrew textual production flourished throughout the Arab world in Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East. This was a fruitful time not only for the composition of original Hebrew poetry but also for grammatical and philosophical treatises in Hebrew. Arabic replaced Aramaic and Greek as Hebrew's primary competitor, but in this case the competition seems to have been quite salutary with respect to Hebrew creativity.

Chapter 5 ("Medieval Ashkenaz and Italy") covers roughly the same time period as the previous chapter but shifts its geographical focus to Christian Europe, specifically, Italy, France, and Germany. From these communities, we have the extensive commentaries of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac) and much important Hebrew liturgical poetry. In addition, Hebrew here helped mediate the transmission of Greco-Arab science into Europe.

In chaps. 6 and 7 ("Hebrew in the Christian Imagination I & II") G. steps back from the Jewish world and focuses on the role of Hebrew language within Christian scholasticism and thought, as well as the ambiguous—and often hostile—nature of Christian–Jewish relations. The former chapter starts with Origen and Jerome and the development of the Vulgate and then makes a few forays into medieval Christian Hebrew scholarship. The latter chapter looks at how Jewish thought and Hebrew scholarship influenced early Enlightenment thinkers, Reformation leaders, and even colonial movements in America. In one interesting tidbit, G. features an image of a page from Isaac Newton's notes, wherein Newton has scribbled some Hebrew phrases (p. 143).

In chap. 8 ("Can These Bones Live?"), G. brings us back to European Jewish society and the beginnings of the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah) and the founding of Hasidism. It details how the revival of Hebrew as both a literary and practical language in Europe well antedated the rise of Zionism. Yiddish literature, however, also began to flourish during the nineteenth century, presenting these Hebrew movements with competition, as did other European vernaculars. G. describes how in the face of this competition early pioneers such as Eliezer...