Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Bowick <james AT bowick.com>]

An interesting question.  While it of course never did become unintelligble,
your question talks about changes in the language.  I would think Classical
Hebrew is as understandible today as King James English.  Which leads to a
way to get at your question.  Today, modern readers, while able to
understand the King James, sometimes misunderstand it without knowing
because of semantic shift in words over time.  (One person told me in all
sincerity that Jesus healed the bends, because the King James Bible said he
healed "divers diseases" not knowing of spelling shifts in English over 400
years).  I would suggest that one can argue that intelligibility declined at
the point when the literature gives interpretations of passages that reflect
usages of the Hebrew words at odds with Classical usage, but consistent with
usage comporary to the text.  I have done no studies to look for such
readings, nor am I aware of any, but it is a method that could be used to
test for declining intelligibility.

James Bowick

On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com> wrote:

> From questions and comments on the list it would seem that Classical Hebrew
> ,
> especially First Temple Hebrew, but probably including Second Temple
> Hebrew,
> here is sometimes treated as a language without continuity, and sometimes
> even
> as if it is a system without ties or counterparts to modern languages.
>
> My question for this list:
> When did Classical Hebrew cease to be understood correctly?
>
> (NB: this is not asking about when a particular word or idiom dropped
> out of use or was misinterpreted,
> but when was the basic system lost to understanding?
> When did people no longer know how to understand/interpret,
> e.g. the verb system, the words in the binyan system?)
>
> Ezekiel?
> Zechariah?
> Ezra?
> Nehemiah?
> Author of Tobit?
> Translators of LXX Torah?
> Author of 1 Maccabees?
> Author of Temple Scroll
> Author of Serex ha-Yahad?
> Yeshua and contemporaries, e.g. Jerusalem Church?
> Tannaitic teachers?
> Amoraic teachers? Hieronomos/Jerome?
> Saadiya?
> Rashi~Radaq?
> Christian Renaissance Hebraists?
> Gesenius?
> Bialik?
> Moshe Shamir?
> It's still understood by some (though not necessarily all the above)?
>
> We know that 'classical' Hebrew with vayyiqtol and veqatal basically
> dropped out of common literary use at the end of the Second Temple.
> (The example of bQidd 66 is likely a fragment from an older history.)
> But was it already grossly misunderstood or was it part of a
> continuous continuity of users?
>
> shalom uvraxot
> שלום וברכות
>
> Randall Buth
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicalulpan.org
> randallbuth AT gmail.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
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