Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Sarah J. Blake" <sarah AT growingstrong.org>]

For what it is worth, whether Jim's reasoning stands up to critical 
linguistic inquiry or not, this is not the first time I have encountered it. 
In non-scholarly literature, it is a quite popular assumption. It is worth 
asking where this assumption comes from (at least in my opinion). From a 
theological perspective, I am curious about how this kind of idea develops 
and takes root in an entire people. From a linguistic perspective, it does 
beg a few questions. What is the origin of the Hebrew language? What is the 
history of the movement of the Hebrew people among other peoples; and how 
did they maintain and change Hebrew language as they interacted with other 
peoples? Did they also speak additional languages during this time? If so, 
what percentage of the population was likely to speak additional languages, 
and how many and which languages did they likely speak?

In the United States, people tend to think very narrowly about language at 
times... In teaching laypeople, it would not be surprising to me to find 
that people assumed that the Hebrews were monolingual. After all, most 
anglo-Americans are monolingual except for whatever languages they are 
required to study in order to meet some high school requirement. In other 
parts of the world, it is not unusual to encounter people who naturally 
speak five or six languages and do so fluently. I have met people who speak 
as many as nine. This gives me pause when considering issues of language in 
the biblical world. There are many arguments over the question of what 
language this or that biblical figure spoke--Jesus is the most often argued 
about. Why not more than one language? These were not unintelligent people; 
and they lived in an environment where more than one language and likely 
more than one dialect were spoken.

Just some food for thought... Not too scholarly at 4:00 AM; but this is how 
I generate my plans for later study...

Sarah J. Blake
Personal email: sjblake AT growingstrong.org
http://www.growingstrong.org 


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