Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>]

To voice my agreement with Harold on the point of languages in use in the
first century, the presence of non-literary Hebrew notes among the Dead Sea
Scrolls (besides the Qumran DSS), in conjunction with Segal's proofs in _A
Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew_ should leave no doubt that Hebrew was a spoken
language at the time. 
Opinions to the contrary are the remnant of scholarship undertaken before
Segal's grammar (1927) and before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (c.
50 years ago), as I argue in a presentation to the CSBS last year,
http://s91279732.onlinehome.us/papers/hebrais

Ken Penner, McMaster/DSS
Dead Sea Scrolls scholars' list owner,
http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot

> "Jews were probably not speaking Hebrew in the first 
> century," said Rabbi
> Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological 
> Seminary. "They were speaking Aramaic."