Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Thanks for the many responses. It has been a learning experience for me.

In general, the picture I get is that Aramaic was the main language spoken in 
the market, on the street, in the homes. Because it uses the same alphabet as 
does Hebrew, those who knew the phonetic value of Hebrew writing could also 
write in Aramaic. However, because Aramaic was considered a lowly language 
not fit for official documents (which included religious documents) people 
would try to use Hebrew whenever possible for these uses and when trying to 
show how erudite they were.

Matthew, as a tax collector, probably knew Hebrew well enough to write his 
official documents and records of his taxes. Therefore, he could very well 
have written his gospel originally in Hebrew.

As for Hebrew, it was spoken by the learned, but because it was the language 
of learning and most people had at least a rudimentary education in Hebrew, 
it was almost universally understood. I suspect that only a small percentage 
of the people and then only the most learned had a fluent knowledge of 
Hebrew, hence the development of Mishnaic Hebrew. But for all intents and 
purposes, Hebrew had ceased to be the main language spoken in the streets 
during the second temple period.

A similar situation was China about a century ago. Today there are two main 
languages: Mandarin and Cantonese, each with its corona of dialects. But a 
hundred years ago, there was a third Chinese language which was used for all 
official records and documents. The educated people acquired a speaking 
knowledge of that language and would speak it while doing their official 
business. It was not just a dead language, it continued to develop, but 
nowhere was it used on the street for all and sundry purposes.

As for the supposedly Aramaic names, how do we know that they were not 
hanging on to an archaic pronunciation of Hebrew? Biblical Hebrew was 
somewhat fluid in its spelling, an indication of phonetic writing. I have 
noticed quite a few nouns that were written sometimes with a final heh, 
sometimes without, leading me to wonder if pre-exilic Hebrew may have been 
pronounced with a final vowel, or sometimes with a vowel then h sound. That 
would then explain the Greek transliteration of “pascha”, “sabata” and others.

Karl W. Randolph.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 09:58:10 -0400
To: "'Hebrew'" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] When did Hebrew cease to be a commonly spoken 
language?

> In response to the many requests for a copy of my talk, I have posted it to
> the web. The links can be found at the top of my Flash! Pro web page:
> http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/westerholm/flash
> 
> Peter Kirk mentioned Randall Buth's articles. Of particular interest is his
> piece in the May 2003 issue of Pipeline.
> http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/pipeline/Pipeline23.asp
> 
> Ken Penner, McMaster/DSS
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PennerThesis
-- 
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