Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

very interesting indeed;

that faith, not fact, dictates whether hebrew, hurrian, hittite or some
other language was spoken & written in hebron ... in 882 b.c.

regards,

fred burlingame

On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 11:03 AM, K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Fred:
>
>  On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 8:20 AM, fred burlingame 
> <tensorpath AT gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> did biblical hebrew language form the sole language of the land, much as
>> english represented the language of america circa 1840-1940?
>>
>> And if so, what time period was biblical hebrew language, the government
>> language, the language of trade and commerce, the liturgical language, the
>> language of street and home; the language of the lower and upper classes;
>> the language north ... and the language south?
>>
>> regards,
>>
>> fred burlingame
>>
>
> You are asking questions for which we have no proof in any answer that we
> give.
>
> Because the ancient Hebrews came from a tradition of writing on materials
> suitable for nomadic lifestyle, namely leather and later papyrus as well,
> almost none of the original documents survived. We don’t even know how
> widespread was the knowledge of writing. It was only through a fluke that
> the Dead Sea Scrolls survived.
>
> Therefore, any answer given here will be according to the answerer’s
> religion / philosophy / presuppositions without archaeological evidence to
> back up the answers. Those who believe that Tanakh gives an accurate
> history, will give a different answer from those who believe that Tanakh was
> a late document, late in the history of Israel.
>
> Because all answers are religious, I will not go into the details at this
> time.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>