“And he [Jonah] said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”
- The Hebrew Bible, “Jonah,” Chapter 1, Verse 9 (as translated by the King James Version of the Bible)
I’ve posted a lot on Facebook about how I’ve been learning Ancient Greek. There’s been a lot of good reaction to this over the years, and some of my posts about it have been surprisingly popular (at least by my standards). I plan to continue learning Ancient Greek, but I have recently decided to undertake the study of Biblical Hebrew as well. Why would I want to do this, you might ask? Why do I not content myself with the languages that I already know? This is what I address in this post. It’s easy to assume that I’m just doing this because this was the language of the “Old Testament” - or the “Hebrew Bible,” if you prefer. And in truth, that is indeed a big part of my motivation. But there are a few other reasons as well, which are also motivations for me to learn Biblical Hebrew. Thus, I thought that I’d write this post to explain.
My church’s edition of the Holy Bible
My interests in languages and linguistics are my biggest reason
Besides my interest in the Bible, my biggest reason for wanting to learn Hebrew is that I have an interest in language generally. During my time in school, I had a strong interest in pursuing a major in linguistics; but I ended up opting for a more lucrative business major instead, as I liked the idea of having money when I need it. Nonetheless, my interest in linguistics was a strong one; and I ended up buying a textbook in linguistics to teach myself a little bit about the subject. Although it was not all uniformly fascinating, much of it was quite engrossing to me. Part of me thought that if I had not chosen a major on the basis of jobs and career potential, I would have opted for a liberal arts major like linguistics. I’ve long been fascinated by language, and I’ve spent much time learning other languages (including some modern ones). Thus, I wanted to study linguistics in more depth.
The challenge of learning a non-Indo-European language like Hebrew
So what does this have to do with the specific language of Hebrew? Well, as it turns out, most American degree programs in linguistics strongly encourage their students to learn a non-Indo-European language; as they feel it broadens the horizons of linguistics students, and “de-provincializes” their understanding of language. It also turns out that Hebrew is just such a language; because unlike English, Hebrew is not in the Indo-European language family; and thus does not have much (if any) discernible relation to English, other than chance similarities, and a few similarities due to borrowing. It is said that to truly understand the ideas of culture and language, one must experience a culture and language that are vastly different from one’s own. I don’t know if this is true; but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were. To truly understand anything (the argument goes), you have to know what makes that thing different from everything else. To understand conservative politics, you have to understand liberal politics. To understand the Christian religion, you have to understand other religions. And to understand a family of languages (like the Indo-European languages), you have to understand others as well.
Yes, Hebrew is a Semitic language; but there’s a broader classification than that ...
So what language family is Hebrew in? If you answered “Semitic,” you’re in the right ballpark - the formal name for the macrofamily of languages that includes Hebrew is the “Afro-Asiatic” language family. Its family tree includes a branch of languages that we call the “Semitic languages” (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, etc.). Thus, Semitic languages are a part of the broader Afro-Asiatic language family. They are a separate language family from the Indo-European language family, the one that includes the Romance languages (like Spanish and French), the Hellenic languages (like Macedonian and Greek), and the Germanic languages (like German and English). Thus, if you want to learn a language vastly different from English (and thus obtain the benefits that linguists promise for this kind of endeavor), Hebrew definitely qualifies for this quest. Hebrew is a good language for English-speaking Americans to know, if they want a vastly different language experience from their own.
Why Hebrew over non-Indo-European languages that have applications to business?
Which brings us to the obvious question: “If that’s what you’re after, then why not learn a practical business language like Japanese, Chinese, or Korean; or a strategic military language like Arabic, Turkish, or Indonesian? These are all non-Indo-European languages as well” (and they are); “and they would thus help you in your quest, while bringing practical benefits at the same time.” I won’t pretend that I’m indifferent to the benefits of practical education - I did, after all, major in business. But there are also a few equally important reasons why I prefer Biblical Hebrew to these more practical choices. One of them is that Hebrew has a much more intuitive writing system than these three East Asian business languages; with an alphabet containing only 22 characters - in contrast to literal thousands of characters with Japanese, Chinese, and South Korean hanja. I would much prefer the comparative simplicity of Hebrew writing.
Sample of the Hebrew alphabet
Why Hebrew over non-Indo-European languages that have applications to the military?
Another reason is that I don’t have much interest in the strategic military languages; because for various medical reasons, I do not qualify for entry into the military; and I haven’t much interest in a military career anyway. (I hasten to add that I totally respect the people who do join the military, but it is not a good career option for me - I much prefer a civilian life.)
Flag of the State of Israel
Why Biblical Hebrew over Modern Hebrew, the language that is spoken in Israel today?
Another reason is that Modern Hebrew isn’t very useful in business, as Israel is a small country with little economic importance. Thus, I thought that I might as well choose the Biblical Hebrew. Modern Hebrew was an attempt to revive the Biblical Hebrew language in modern times, and so the language has strong similarities to its ancestor. Nonetheless, it is still a very different language from Biblical Hebrew. One can never truly stop languages from changing after revival - or at any time, for that matter. Moreover, the reconstruction of ancient languages is no more than educated guesswork. We’ll never know for sure how similar Biblical Hebrew was to its modern descendant, and we should not confuse educated guesses with known facts.
Standard edition of the Hebrew Bible in the original
Understanding the Hebrew Bible (a. k. a. the “Old Testament”) in the original
And the final reason is the obvious one that I started with - my interest in the Christian Bible; with the book called the “Hebrew Bible” by modern Jews, and the “Old Testament” by modern Christians. (Go figure, I learn Biblical Hebrew and I want to learn about the Hebrew Bible - who’d have thought?) It really is an important scriptural language; and it will be an important part of our religious heritage for years to come. Even if I never use it to read the scriptures in the original, it can still give me invaluable insight into the culture of the Ancient Hebrews - and perhaps, some insight into the Old Testament and even the New Testament.
“And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret. And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.”
- The Hebrew Bible, “The First Book of Moses Called Genesis,” Chapter 41, Verses 11 through 14 (as translated by the King James Version of the Bible)
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Reflections on learning about history of Ancient Israel
Aramaic: The OTHER Bible language
My search for the Hebrew Bible in the original
My search for the Greek New Testament
Why I am learning Ancient Greek
Learning the basics of Ancient Greek from a book
Falling in love with Classics: How I rediscovered Ancient Greece and Rome
My deep and abiding love of the Bible
Some thoughts about Biblical education
Part of a series about
My own experiences
Why I am learning Biblical Hebrew
Note: These posts do not have to be read in any particular order. Since time periods overlap, there isn’t much chronological order to observe here.
See also this series about
Modern languages
Note: These posts do not have to be read in any particular order. Since time periods overlap, there isn’t much chronological order to observe here.
Posts
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