Hebrew was the language of the Jewish people. It is the language in which nearly all of the Old Testament was written. At the time of the Jews’ exile to Babylon (sixth century BC), the Jewish people took up Aramaic as their main language. And by New Testament times, many Jews spoke Greek. But century after century, Jewish scholars continued to learn and pass on the Hebrew of the Scriptures. Indeed, a form of Hebrew is still spoken by Jews today. The Hebrew language is named after the people who spoke it. But the Old Testament does not actually use the term “Hebrew” to describe the language in which it was written. (It uses “Hebrew” only to refer to Hebrew people.) Instead, the Old Testament refers to “the language of Canaan” (Isaiah 19:18) or “the language of Judah” (Nehemiah 13:24). The New Testament however, does use the term “Hebrew language.” The way a language is constructed and the terms it uses help to shape the thoughts of the people who speak that language.

Bible experts learn Hebrew to be able to really understand what YAHVEH was saying through the Old Testament writers. We do well to remember that the Bible was not written in English. Behind the English translations we read; however good they may be; lie the original Bible manuscripts and text written in Hebrew and Greek. It was those words that YAHVEH inspired, not the words of our translations. Attempting to understand the biblical languages is a noble task. It’s a way of getting closer to the true meaning of Scripture so that we can “think YAHVEH’s thoughts after Him” and obey His every Word. Our understanding of where the Hebrew language came from and how it developed over time has gotten much better than it used to be. But there is still more to be learned about the language. In the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed that Hebrew was the primitive language of humankind. Even in colonial America, Hebrew was still referred to as “the mother of all languages.”

Research into languages however, has proved that theory false. Hebrew is actually one of several Canaanite dialects that included Phoenician, Ugaritic and Moabite. Other Canaanite dialects (for example, Ammonite) existed, but we have too few examples of them for scholars to do a proper investigation. Such dialects were already present in the land of Canaan before its conquest by the Israelites. Until about AD 1974, the oldest examples of Canaanite language were found in the Ugarit and Amarna records dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries B.C. A few Canaanite words and expressions appeared in earlier Egyptian records, but the origin of Canaanite was uncertain. Between 1974 and 1976 however, nearly seventeen thousand tablets were dug up at Tell Mardikh (ancient Ebla) in northern Syria, written in a previously unknown Semitic dialect. Because they possibly date back to 2400 BC (and perhaps even earlier), many scholars think that language may be the “Old Canaanite” that gave rise to Hebrew.

Of course, Hebrew did not remain the same throughout the biblical period. All languages change over time. For example, the English used in the time of Alfred the Great (ninth century AD) seems almost like a foreign language to today’s English speakers. And while Hebrew remained remarkably stable over many centuries, it was no exception to the general principle of language change. Poems such as the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) tended to preserve the language’s oldest form. Changes that took place later in the long history of the language are shown in the presence of out-of-date words (often preserved in poetic language) and a general difference in style. For example, the book of Job reflects an earlier style than the book of Esther. Various Hebrew dialects apparently existed side by side in Old Testament times. This is reflected in the pronunciation of the Hebrew word “shibboleth” (Judges 12:4-6). It seems that the Israelites east of the Jordan River pronounced the initial letter with a strong “sh” sound, while those in Canaan gave it the simple “s” sound. Scholars have also identified features of Hebrew that could be described as reflecting the northern or southern parts of the country.

FAMILY OF LANGUAGES
Linguistic scholars categorize languages in “families” according to which languages are related to each other. In this approach, Hebrew belongs to the Semitic family of languages. These languages were used from the Mediterranean Sea to the mountains east of the Euphrates River valley and from Armenia (Turkey) in the north to the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Semitic languages are further classified as Southern (Arabic and Ethiopic), Eastern (Akkadian) and North-western (Aramaic, Syriac and Canaanite). Thus, Hebrew is a North-western Semitic language because it, like Phoenician, Ugaritic and Moabite, was a Canaanite language.

Every language has its own special character that affects how it expresses ideas. Hebrew is no different. Like the other early Semitic languages, Hebrew concentrates on observation more than on reflection. It generally describes things according to how they appear, rather than analyzing their essence. It notes effects but does not trace those effects through a series of causes. Hebrew is amazingly concise and direct. For example, Psalm 23 contains just 55 words. Most translations require about twice that many words to translate it. The first two lines (with slashes separating the individual Hebrew words in the original) read:

The Lord/[is] my Shepherd/
I shall want/not

Thus eight English words are required to translate four Hebrew words. Furthermore, Hebrew does not use separate, distinct expressions for every shade of thought. Someone has said, “The Semites have been the quarries whose great rough blocks the Greeks have trimmed, polished and fitted together. The former gave religion; the latter, philosophy.” Hebrew is a pictorial language that does not merely describe the past but paints it verbally. It re-enacts events in the mind’s eye as a moving panorama. Note the frequent use of “behold”; a Hebraism carried over to the New Testament. Such common Hebrew expressions as “he arose and went,” “he opened his lips and spoke” and “he lifted up his eyes and saw” illustrate the pictorial strength of the language. Many profound theological expressions of the Old Testament are tightly bound up with Hebrew language and grammar. Even the most sacred Name of YAHVEH Himself; ”ADONAI“; is directly related to the Hebrew verb “to be” (or perhaps “to cause to be”). Many other names of persons and places in the Old Testament can best be understood only with a working knowledge of Hebrew.

ALPHABET AND SCRIPT
The Hebrew alphabet consists of twenty-two letters, all of which are consonants. Only late in the language’s history were additional symbols invented to represent vowels. No one knows when the Hebrew alphabet was originally devised. The oldest examples of a Canaanite alphabet were preserved in the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet of the fourteenth century B.C. (Cuneiform is a kind of writing that consists of wedge-shaped marks.) The old style of writing letters is called the Phoenician or paleo-Hebrew script. It is the predecessor of the Greek and other Western alphabets. The script used in Modern Hebrew Bibles (Aramaic or square script) became popular only after Israel’s exile into Babylon (sixth century BC). The older style was still used sometimes in the early Christian era on coins and for writing YAHVEH’s Name (as in the Dead Sea Scrolls). Hebrew has always been written right to left.

CONSONANTS
The twenty-two consonants of the Hebrew language are similar to those in related languages. The Canaanite alphabet of the Phoenician and Moabite languages also had twenty-two consonants. The older Canaanite language reflected in Ugaritic had more consonants. Arabic also preserves some Old Canaanite consonants found in Ugaritic but missing in Hebrew.
VOWELS
In the original Hebrew script, there were no vowels, only consonants. Vowels were simply understood by the writer or reader. On the basis of tradition and context, the reader would supply whatever vowels were needed, much as is done in English abbreviations (for example, “blvd.” for “boulevard”). This system worked for a long time. After the dispersion of the Jews and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, Hebrew became a “dead language.” It was no longer widely spoken. Loss of traditional pronunciation and understanding then became more of a possibility. So Jewish scribes permanently established the vowel sounds. First, scribes added vowel letters called “mothers of reading” (matres lectionis). These were consonants used in a special way to indicate long vowels. They were added before the Christian era, as the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal. Later (about the fifth century AD), scribes called the Masoretes added vowel signs to indicate short vowels. At least three different systems of vowel signs were used at different times and places. The text used today represents the system devised by Masoretic scribes who worked in the city of Tiberias, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The vowels, each of which may be long or short, are indicated by dots or dashes placed above or below the consonants. Certain combinations of dots and dashes represent very short vowel sounds, or “half-vowels.”

LINKAGE
Hebrew joins together many words that in Western languages would be written separately. Some prepositions (be-, “in”; le-, “to”; ke-, “like”) are prefixed directly to the noun or verb that they introduce. The same is true for the definite article ha- (“the”) and the conjunction wa- (“and”). Suffixes are used for pronouns. A word may have both a prefix and a suffix.

NOUNS
Nouns are words that describe definite things, such as objects, qualities and concepts. Like every language, Hebrew has a menu of nouns available to describe the things the Jewish people encountered. Hebrew is one of those languages that classifies nouns by gender. Everything is masculine or feminine. (Hebrew has no neuter gender.) Inanimate objects may be either masculine or feminine, depending on the formation or character of the word. Usually, abstract ideas or words indicating a group are feminine. Nouns are derived from root words and are formed either by modifying vowels or by adding prefixes or suffixes to a root word. Contrary to Greek and many Western languages, compound nouns (two nouns put together to create a new word) are not characteristic of Hebrew. The Hebrew plural is formed by adding; im for masculine nouns (for example, “seraphim”) and; oth for feminine nouns.

ADJECTIVES
Hebrew has few adjectives or words that modify nouns. So it uses other techniques to describe things. “A double heart” is indicated in Hebrew by “a heart and a heart” (Psalm 12:2). “Two differing weights” is actually “a stone and a stone” (Deuteronomy 25:13). “The whole royal family” is “the seed of the kingdom” (2 Kings 11:1). Those adjectives that do exist in Hebrew have no comparative form (one thing is like another) or superlative form (one thing is greater than another). But it gets around this problem by expressing ideas in other ways. Making up for the lack of comparative adjectives, Hebrew indicates relationships between two things with the preposition “from.” “Better than you” is expressed literally in Hebrew as “good from you.” “The serpent was more subtle than any other beast” is literally “the serpent was subtle from every beast” (Genesis 3:1). The superlative is expressed by several different constructions. The idea of “very deep” is literally “deep, deep” (Ecclesiastes 7:24). The “best song” is literally “song of songs.” “Holiest” is literally “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3).

VERBS
Verbs are action words. In Hebrew, verbs are formed from a root word usually consisting of three letters. From such roots, verbal forms are developed by a change of vowels or by adding prefixes or suffixes. (The root consonants provide the backbone of the language and give a stability of meaning not characteristic of Western languages. The vowels, though, are quite flexible.) Hebrew verb usage does not include a precise definition of tenses. Hebrew tenses, especially in poetry, is largely determined by context. The two tense formations indicate completed action and incomplete action. A distinctive formation is the “prophetic perfect,” where a future event considered so sure that it is expressed as past (for example, see Isaiah 5:13 in the KJV).

VOCABULARY
A language’s vocabulary is the collection of words that make up the language. Hebrew’s vocabulary is much smaller than that of English, but it was adequate for the needs of Hebrew speakers and writers. Most Hebrew root words originally expressed some physical action or identified some natural object. The verb “to decide” originally meant “to cut.” The expression “to be true” originally meant “to be firmly fixed.” The idea of “to be honourable” meant “to be heavy.” Hebrew has few abstract terms. For example, biblical Hebrew has no specific words for “theology,” “philosophy” or “religion.” Intellectual or theological concepts are expressed by concrete terms. The idea of sin is represented by such words as “to miss the mark” and “crooked” and “to cross over.” The mind and intellect are expressed by “heart” or “kidneys.” Emotion and compassion are expressed by the word “bowels.” Other concrete terms in Hebrew are “horn” for strength or vigour, “bones” for self and “seed” for descendants. A mental quality is often depicted by a part of the body. Strength can be represented by “arm” or “hand,” anger by “nostril,” displeasure by “falling face,” acceptance by “shining face,” thinking by “say.” Some translators have attempted to represent a Hebrew word always by the same English word, but that leads to serious problems. Sometimes there is considerable disagreement on the exact shade of meaning of a Hebrew word in a given passage. A single root frequently represents a variety of meanings depending on usage and context. The word for “bless” can also mean “curse,” “greet,” “favour,” or “praise.” The word for “judgment” is used also for “justice,” “verdict,” “penalty,” “duty,” “custom” and “manner.” The word for “strength” or “power” also means “army,” “virtue,” “worth” and “courage.” Further ambiguity arises from the fact that some Hebrew consonants stand for two different original consonants that have merged in the evolution of the language. Two words that on the surface appear to be identical may be traced back to two different roots. For an example of this phenomenon in English, compare “bass” (a fish) with “bass” (a vocalist).

SYNTAX
Syntax is the way in which parts of a sentence are put together. In Hebrew, syntax is relatively uncomplicated. For example, Hebrew uses few subordinating conjunctions (“if,” “when,” “because,” and so on). It coordinates sentences by using the simple conjunction “and.” English translations of biblical texts generally try to show the logical connection between a sentence and the one that follows, even though the logic is not always clear. In Genesis 1:2-3:1, all but three of the fifty-six verses begin with “and,” yet the New Living Translation translates that conjunction variously as “then” (Genesis 1:3), “so” (Genesis 1:27), “but” (Genesis 2:6) and “now” (Genesis 3:1). Hebrew style is enlivened by use of direct discourse. The narrator does not simply state that “such and such a person said that...” (Indirect discourse). Instead, the parties speak for themselves (direct discourse), creating a freshness that remains even after repeated reading.

POETRY
The Hebrews were fond of poetry and the Old Testament is filled with poems. While Hebrew poetry does not necessarily use the same forms and techniques of English poetry, it is often powerful and beautiful. Some of the techniques used in Hebrew poetry can be appreciated only in the original Hebrew. One example is alliteration; the repeated use of words that begin with a particular letter. Another example is acrostic; starting each line or stanza of a poem with a different letter in the proper alphabetic order. But one important device of Hebrew poetry can be appreciated in an English translation and that is parallelism. There are at least four common types of Hebrew parallelism:

1.) Synonymous parallelism; two or more lines say the same thing in different ways.
2.) Antithetic parallelism; two lines express contrary ideas.
3.) Completive parallelism; one line fills out the thought of the preceding line.
4.) Climactic parallelism; one line picks up the thought of the preceding line and adds to it.

Numerous other forms of parallelism enrich Hebrew poetry. The possible variations of parallelism are almost endless.

FIGURES OF SPEECH
Hebrew abounds in expressive figures of speech based on the Hebrew people’s character and way of life. Certain odd but well-known expressions found in English literature come from the Hebrew style, like “apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10) and “skin of my teeth” (Job 19:20). Some of the more striking Hebrew modes of expression are hard to transfer into English, such as “to uncover the ear,” meaning “to reveal.” Others are more familiar, like “to stiffen the neck” for “to be stubborn” and “to bend the ear” for “to listen closely.”

LEGACY
English and other modern languages have been enriched by Hebrew. English even contains a number of Hebrew words. Some of these have had wide influence (“amen,” “hallelujah,” “jubilee”). Many Hebrew proper nouns are used in modern languages for persons and places, such as David, Jonathan/John, Miriam/Mary and Bethlehem. Many common Hebrew expressions have been accepted into English figures of speech, as in “mouth of the cave” and “face of the earth.” Some figures, such as “east of Eden,” have been used as titles for books and films. The greatest legacy of the Hebrew language however, is the Old Testament. There, in Hebrew terms, we read of how YAHVEH dealt with people in a prior time and how He planned to send His Son for our salvation.

Love in Yeshua
Be blessed and stay blessed!
Have a joyful day and remember to thank Yahweh יהוה for it!