In the Beginning : A Short History of the Hebrew Language

by Hoffman, Joel M.

• ISBN13: 9780814736548
• ISBN10: 0814736548
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-30
• Publisher: New York University Press

Summary

Hoffman has a flair for explaining how languages work. -Times Literary Supplement Hoffman does a good job of pointing out the different traditions of biblical Hebrew that existed in antiquity. -The Jerusalem Post A fascinating account of the evolution of Hebrew as a language. Those interested in language are in for a delightful surprise. -Record-Review of Scarsdale, NY Those with a passion for Hebrew, linguistics and religious history will probably find much to captivate them. -Na'amat Woman Strikes the right balance between thoroughness and accessibility. -Jewish Book World Hebrew as a language is just over 3,000 years old, and the story of its alphabet is unique among the languages of the world. Hebrew set the stage for almost every modern alphabet, and was arguably the first written language simple enough for everyone, not just scribes, to learn, making it possible to make a written record available to the masses for the first time. Written language has existed for so many years-since around 3500 BCE-that most of us take it for granted. But as Hoffman reveals in this entertaining and informative work, even the idea that speech can be divided into units called words and that these words can be represented with marks on a page, had to be discovered. As Hoffman points out, almost every modern system of writing descends from Hebrew; by studying the history of this language, we can learn a good deal about how we express ourselves today. Hoffman follows and decodes the adventure that is the history of Hebrew, illuminating how the written record has survived, the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient translations, and attempts to determine how the language actually sounded. He places these developments into a historical context, and shows their continuing impact on the modern world. This sweeping history traces Hebrew's development as one of the first languages to make use of vowels. Hoffman also covers the dramatic story of the rebirth of Hebrew as a modern, spoken language. Packed with lively information about language and linguistics and history, In the Beginning is essential reading for both newcomers and scholars interested in learning more about Hebrew and languages in general.

Author Biography

Joel M. Hoffman lectures around the country, and teaches classes on ancient Hebrew and on translation at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	xi
List of Figures	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
I Getting Started
1 Introduction	3	(4)
2 Rules of the Game	7	(8)
Three Theories of the World	7	(1)
Two Theories of Language	8	(2)
Loose Ends	10	(5)
Transliterations	10	(1)
Other Matters of Notation	10	(5)
II Antiquity
3 Writing	15	(24)
A Difficult Task	15	(2)
Non-alphabetic Writing	17	(6)
Logographs	17	(2)
Syllabic Writing	19	(1)
Consonantal Writing	20	(3)
The First Hebrew Alphabetic Writing	23	(5)
Adding Vowels	23	(1)
The Old Script and the New Script	24	(1)
How It Worked	25	(1)
Why Did It Take So Long?	26	(2)
How Do We Know?	28	(11)
The Question	28	(1)
The Answers	28	(7)
Summary	35	(4)
4 Magic Letters and the Name of God	39	(10)
Magic Letters	39	(5)
Setting the Stage	39	(1)
The Magic H	40	(4)
The Name of God	44	(5)
5 The Masoretes	49	(32)
Why We Care	49	(1)
The Masoretic Groups	50	(17)
Tiberias	52	(9)
Babylonia	61	(4)
The Land of Israel	65	(1)
Other Systems	66	(1)
What Were the Masoretes Doing?	67	(9)
What Did the Masoretes Try to Do?	68	(2)
What Did the Masoretes Really Do?	70	(6)
Conclusions	76	(1)
How Do We Know?	76	(5)
The Leningrad Codex	76	(2)
The Aleppo Codex	78	(1)
Other Manuscripts	78	(1)
Descriptions of the Manuscripts	79	(2)
6 Pronunciation	81	(40)
Methods	81	(9)
Comparison with Modern Hebrew	82	(1)
Comparison with Masoretic Hebrew	82	(3)
Comparison with Other Semitic Languages	85	(1)
Comparison with Ancient Greek	85	(1)
Transliterations	86	(4)
The Septuagint and Hebrew	90	(12)
A First Example	91	(3)
General Patterns	94	(5)
Doubled Letters	99	(2)
Summary	101	(1)
Origen's Hexapla and Hebrew	102	(14)
What Is the Hexapla?	102	(2)
A First Example	104	(1)
Some More Background	105	(1)
General Patterns	106	(7)
What Is the Secunda Columna?	113	(3)
Summary	116	(1)
Conclusions	116	(5)
III Moving On
7 The Dead Sea Scrolls	121	(28)
Background	121	(14)
How Did We Get Them?	122	(7)
Are They Real?	129	(1)
What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?	130	(4)
Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?	134	(1)
What Do We Learn from the Dead Sea Scrolls?	135	(14)
The Hebrew of the DSS	136	(5)
The Content of the DSS	141	(6)
The Big Picture	147	(2)
8 Dialects in the Bible	149	(16)
Late Biblical Hebrew	150	(7)
Overview	150	(1)
Vowel Letters	150	(3)
Grammar	153	(1)
Caveats	154	(3)
The Nature of the Evidence	157	(1)
External Evidence	158	(3)
Pre-Exilic Hebrew	158	(2)
Post-Exilic Hebrew	160	(1)
Ramifications	161	(4)
Ancient Texts	162	(1)
Ancient Texts from Different Sources	162	(3)
9 Post-Biblical Hebrew	165
Background	165	(7)
Aramaic	166	(6)
Greek	172	(1)
Rabbinic Hebrew	172	(8)
Where Do We See Rabbinic Hebrew?	173	(2)
On Variety	175	(1)
The Nature of Rabbinic Hebrew	176	(4)
Conclusions	180	(1)
Non-Spoken Hebrew	180	(7)
IV Now
10 Modern Hebrew	187	(24)
The Fire of Love for Hebrew	187	(3)
Periods of Modem Hebrew	190	(4)
Ben-Yehuda's Hebrew	191	(1)
Early Israeli Hebrew	191	(2)
Current Israeli Hebrew	193	(1)
Ben-Yehuda's Hebrew	194	(6)
Pronunciation	194	(2)
Vocabulary	196	(1)
Grammar	197	(2)
Spelling	199	(1)
Early Israeli Hebrew	200	(2)
Pronunciation	200	(1)
Vocabulary	200	(2)
Grammar	202	(1)
Spelling	202	(1)
Current Israeli Hebrew	202	(15)
Pronunciation	203	(2)
Vocabulary	205	(2)
Grammar	207	(1)
Spelling	208	(3)
11 Keep Your Voice from Weeping	211	(6)
V Appendices
A More about the Rules of the Game	217	(12)
Three Theories of the World	217	(6)
The Dumb-Luck Theory	217	(1)
The God Theory	218	(1)
The Science Theory	219	(4)
Two Theories of Language	223	(6)
Prescriptive Linguistics	223	(2)
Descriptive Linguistics	225	(4)
B Further Reading	229	(16)
General	230	(1)
Rules	231	(1)
Writing	232	(3)
Magic Letters and the Name of God	235	(1)
Masoretes	236	(1)
Pronunciation	237	(2)
The Dead Sea Scrolls	239	(3)
Dialects in the Bible	242	(1)
Post-Biblical Hebrew	242	(1)
Modern Hebrew	243	(2)
Bibliography	245	(6)
Index	251	(12)
About the Author	263