Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>]

George Athas wrote:

> > [...]
> > Another question I have is that in the Genesis narratives, Abraham's 
> > dialogs
> > are in Hebrew (correct me if I am wrong). If he is from Harran, why isn't 
> > he
> > speaking in Aramaic ? If he is from Lower Mesopotamia, why isn't he 
> > speaking
> > in Akkadian ?  If these dialogs are really "his preserved words", and if 
> > one
> > wants to argue later generations rendered his words into Hebrew, then
> > wouldn't word studies reveal an Aramaic or Akkadian language underlying 
> > the
> > Hebrew translation ? [...]
>
> Why do Colleen McCullough's Roman characters all seem to speak in English? 
> Why do the
> characters in the movie, "Gladiator" all speak English? Why does Jesus 
> speak Greek in the
> NT?

In Gen. 31, the narrator makes a clear distinction between the language 
spoken by Laban -
Aramean - and the language spoken by Jacob - Hebrew; meaning that for the 
writers of the
Patriarchal Narratives, the Patriarchs had spoken Hebrew. This doesn't mean 
anything
historically, of course, unless you want to claim that thwe Patriarchs spole 
some Amorite
dialect, which later became Hebrew. But it would appear that the Patriarchs 
originated in an
Aramaic milieu and not an Amorite one.
Sincerely,
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel