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b-hebrew - RE: Saadia Gaon: Where did Hebrew Come From?

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  • From: "Lewis Reich" <lbr AT sprynet.com>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Saadia Gaon: Where did Hebrew Come From?
  • Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 21:43:35 -0500


On 18 Feb 00, at 11:53, Wondell M. Rachman wrote:

> So what you're saying is that his premises were based on the available
> information. I'd never heard of Saadia Gaon before, and assumed he was
> a modern linguist that had access to all of the above.
>
> Is there anything in his writings that is credible or substantiated,
> then?


Saadiah ben Joseph (882-942) was one of most important Jewish figures
of the post-Talmudic (geonic) period. Born in Egypt, he served as head of
one of the two major Jewish academies in Babylonia. He was an active
polemicist against Karaism, and wrote legal monographs, grammatical
works, a philosophical work ("Beliefs and Opinions"), and a translation of
the Bible into Arabic. He was the first to write Jewish legal works in
Arabic,
which had replaced Aramaic as the language spoken by the Jews of
Babylonia.

Lewis Reich




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