Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Michael Abernathy" <mabernathy AT isot.com>]

Liz commented on the fact that the papyri from Elephantine were written in 
Aramaic.  This is relevent evidence for what was happening outside of Israel. 
 One question that must be raised is, "Did the Jews in Israel and the Jews in 
foreign lands continue to speak the same language?"  There is some evidence 
that Aramaic was used as a trade language outside of Judah and eventually 
adopted by the Jews while the Jews in the Holy Land continued to use Hebrew 
as their primary language.  For example, you will find that most of what was 
written in Israel in the first century was in Hebrew.  You can also find 
references in the Talmud to Jews in Jerusalem seeking a translator because 
someone asked a question in Aramaic.  On the other hand, I remember a 
reference to a Jew outside of Israel asking his maid to explain what the 
Hebrew in a passage meant.
Sincerely,
Michael Abernathy

>From jkilmon AT historian.net  Sat Jun 14 11:59:43 2003
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From: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>
To: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>,
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] When did Hebrew cease to be a commonly spoken 
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2003 1:51 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] When did Hebrew cease to be a commonly spoken
language?


> Dear Michael Millier:
>
> I have very little direct evidence. Ken Penner in his letter raises
questions based on evidence I lack.
>
> However, I noticed that, assuming that the authors and dates are as the
Bible claims, there was a certain amount of language change from Torah to
Jeremiah, but the post exilic authors returned to a style more akin to that
found in Torah. In other words, there was a discontinuity of language
development. That suggests to me that while Hebrew continued to be studied
and spoken, it was no longer the primary language of the speakers.
>
> Other clues include the extensive Aramaic insertions into Daniel and Ezra,
where they expected the readers to understand them (contrast to 2 Kings
18:26), and the example of Esther 2:1 where the author inserted the Aramaic
term GZR for the Hebrew XQQ (how many more are there like that?), as well as
the historical situation of the people having been scattered in an Aramaic
millieu, all point to Hebrew having become the scholars' language and the
language of religion (temple and synagog), official documents and coins that
the common people could understand, but that the common language for
everyday use was Aramaic. When Paul spoke to the crowd in Acts 22:2, the
Hebrew language was specifically mentioned whereas times when Aramaic was
spoken the language was not an issue, again a clue that Hebrew was then the
scholars' language.
>
> I don't have proof for my belief that Hebrew ceased being the everyday,
common language, nor even strong evidence, just a haunch based on disparate
clues, and my belief could very well be wrong.

One strong indicator, IMO, for the "language of the street" is the writing
OF the "people of the street," the larger group between literate and
illiterate that statististics overlook...the quasiliterate.  This takes its
form most noticeably on ossuaria where the family members of the deceased
scrawled the names on the box in what is normally a graffito style.  No
better example is the extremely awkward scratches of the High Priest
Caiaphas' name and, perhaps, the second inscription on the James Ossuary,
scratched after the scribe's part on the occasion of the bone collection.
ALL of the Semitic inscriptions on all of the catalogued ossuaria are in
Aramaic.  The language commonly spoken will be the language commonly
misspelled or grammatically incorrect on ossuaria, ostraca, graffiti, and
that is nearly exclusively Aramaic.  I also think that loan words will drift
from the common tongue to the language of literati and liturgy as
demonstrated in the peppering of 2nd temple Hebrew with Aramaic loan words
and the relative few Hebrew loan words in Aramaic up to the 1st half of the
1st century.  In short, besides an overwhelming amount of other indicators
for Aramaic as the commonly spoken language, graffiti is the strongest and
graffiti (like Hamath) was in Aramaic.

shlama
Jack