Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

#Of course, you are right. The fact that Hebrew is so closely related  
to so many contemporary cognates seems to speak for itself...

However, it does raise interesting linguistic questions. Let us  
postulate that it is historically true that Abraham came out of Ur and  
wandered around Canann. Let us also postulate that it is historically  
true that Jacob and sons ended up in Egypt and that later generations  
ended up in slavery and eventually came out of to wander about in Sinai.

It does raise interesting linguistic questions about what language  
they likely spoke in different periods of their wanderings:

a) while in Canaan before the slavery
b) while in Egypt under slavery
c) post slavery

Assuming that it is true that Isreal came out of Egypt under some  
leader who gave them their laws and religiion (let us call him Moses)  
then it kind of makes sense, in a way, that the alphabet they used is  
based on a subset of Egyptian hieroglyphics. So, it raises the  
following questions that can be considered objectively:

a) did the Hebrew used to write the Torah come about as a dialect that  
evolved from the Egyptian that the hebrews spoke while in Egypt
b) did the Hebrews manage to keep their language, being bilingual,  
while in slavery in Egypt and the Hebrew of the Torah is, therefore,  
more or less the same as the Hebrew of Jacob, of Isaac, of Abraham
c) As a chaldean of Ur, what was likely to be Abraham's mother tongue of birth
d) did Abraham learn Canaanite while wandering about in Canaan? Is  
Hebrew a direct descendant of Canaanite?

James Christian



Quoting George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>:

> I don't see how this reasoning could possibly be subjected to, let   
> alone stand up to, critical linguistic investigation. And I   
> certainly don't see how it makes Hebrew 'holy'. It stands in the   
> realm of belief, not academic investigation. As such, this   
> discussion is more than a bit tenuous.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
> www.moore.edu.au
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