Summary: Take a peek into lesson one of the Biblical Hebrew language course taught by Dr. R. Brian Rickett from Brookes Bible College.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. – Proverbs 1:7 (ESV)
An Opportunity and an Adventure
Dr. R. Brian Rickett, featured in our film Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy, is a professor at Brookes Bible College of St. Louis and founder of MIKRA Research Laboratory, which analyzes Judeo-Christian textual artifacts, emphasizing Biblical Hebrew manuscripts.
Back in July, Rickett offered a Biblical Hebrew class as a free perk for Thinkers, and I decided to take it. All the memorizing of letters and the sounds they make has been challenging, but learning Hebrew is fascinating. I would like to share some of the history of Hebrew that Dr. Rickett taught us on the first day of class, for the benefit of those who weren’t able to join.
Hebrew 101
Hebrew is an ancient yet modern language with a long history. Its unbroken literary tradition dates back more than 3,000 years. As one of the very few surviving ancient languages, it is a unique example of a dialect that almost went extinct only to be brought back as a living language.
As one of the world’s oldest languages, Hebrew is a foundation of Jewish identity. It was used over a period of some 1,400 years to record history; all the way from Job and the Torah to Malachi. Learning this language is invaluable for the person who wants to better understand God’s Word.
Reading right to left is definitely foreign to many, but once you know the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, learning the language is really doable. A few basic facts include, there are no capital letters, just 22 consonants which each correspond to a number. It wasn’t until AD 500 that marks for vowel sounds were added to written Hebrew, by a group called the Masoretes, to preserve pronunciation. Rickett demonstrated in class that the order of Hebrew letters is clearly indicated by acrostic (alphabetically ordered) poems found in the books of Psalms, Lamentations, and Proverbs.
Try dipping your toe into the Hebrew language with me and see how the Bible comes alive like never before. Much of which I learned comes from A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew by William Barrick and Irvin Busenitz (BB), the textbook used by Dr. Rickett.
The Ancient Semitic Language Family
Hebrew is part of the Semitic family of about 70 languages found in the geographical area of Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Ethiopia, according to the BB textbook. There are three branches within the Semitic language group: Northwest, Southwest, and Eastern. Hebrew belongs to the Northwest branch.
The ancient Semitic language family contains five major languages: Hebrew, Akkadian, Aramaic, Ethiopic, and Arabic. The only two that are still spoken today are Hebrew and Arabic.
The word Semitic comes from the name of Noah’s son, Shem. The Semitic dialect family has identifiable similarities connecting the languages spoken by certain genealogical branches of Shem’s descendants, according to Rickett.
Genesis 10 contains the record of Noah and his family after the Flood.
These are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. (Gen. 10:1)
To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. (10:21-22)
The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. (10:30-31)
The Major Semitic Languages
In Dr. Rickett’s class, we learned that Akkadian is the common name for the early Mesopotamian languages of ancient Assyria and Babylon. Akkad was the main city of the early Semitic empire in Mesopotamia and was founded by Ham’s grandson Nimrod (Gen. 10:10).
Aramaic superseded Akkadian, becoming the official language of the Near East around the 10th century BC onward. Later, by AD 70, Aramaic eventually replaced Hebrew completely in Palestine. Much of the rabbinical writings called the Talmud are written in Aramaic. By the 6th century AD, Jewish scholars had completed Aramaic translations of the entire Hebrew Bible, called Targums.
Arabic displaced Aramaic around the 7th century AD. Although, there is evidence of the language of Arabia being in existence as early as the 8th century BC. Arabic is the official language of Islam and the Qur’an. Muslims are required to read and memorize the Qur’an in Arabic even if they don’t speak or understand the language.
Evolution of Hebrew
Hebrew, closely related to Phoenician and Ugaritic, was the language of the people of Israel until the Babylonian exile, when it was eventually replaced by Aramaic.
Rickett showed us that one result of the Babylonian captivity and the transition to Aramaic was that Hebrew scribes evolved their writing style from the original old Phoenician script to the Aramaic square script. Writers of Hebrew still employ this same writing style today, now called Jewish script.
When the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem after some 70 years in a foreign land, they needed the “Book of the Law of Moses” to be translated and interpreted for them because Hebrew was no longer their common language. The book of Nehemiah refers to this.
And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, (with interpretation or paragraph by paragraph) and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Neh. 8:1-3, 8)
During the time of Jesus, the 1st century AD, Aramaic, rather than Hebrew, was the most common language spoken in Israel. Miraculously, almost 2000 years later, Eliezar ben Yehudah brought back the spoken language of Hebrew, when Jews started returning to Palestine. In 1948, the newly established state of Israel revived Hebrew as its national language.
Phases of Hebrew
The main phases of the Hebrew language are Biblical or classical Hebrew, Rabbinical or Mishnaic Hebrew, and Modern Hebrew, according to the BB Hebrew textbook.
Rabbinic literature consists of the Midrash and the Talmud. Midrash means “investigation” or “inquiry” and consists of oral, expositional interpretations of the Old Testament. The oral tradition of the Midrash dates back to the time of the prophet Ezra. However, most of its teachings were composed much later, between the 7th and 10th centuries AD.
Talmud means “study” and is the source from which the Jewish religion derives rabbinic law. The Talmud has two parts: Mishnah and Gemara. The main text is the Mishnah which means “learning” or “repetition.” Written in Hebrew, it consists of a collection of religious and legal decisions developed out of the Old Testament. It was produced by rabbis around the 2nd century AD with the purpose of stressing divine immanence, simple piety, and saintly life.
The second part of the Talmud is Gemara meaning “accomplishment.” Dating from 200-500 AD, it is written in Aramaic and contains rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah.
Conclusion
Perhaps you will be motivated to learn more after learning some of these basics. This class was very popular and filled fast, but perhaps it will be offered to Thinkers again in the future. Hebrew has withstood the test of time. As the language God chose to have the Old Testament written in, “a knowledge of Biblical Hebrew will enhance your understanding of God’s Word,” Dr. Rickett told Tim Mahoney when talking about the class he teaches. “Learning Hebrew changes your perspective.”
It is like being accustomed to watching TV in only black and white and then, all of a sudden, seeing a movie in color, explained Rickett. People are amazed over how they’re able to see color and nuance in Scripture that they weren’t able to see before. It’s really impactful and profound.
Knowing Hebrew opens up the delights of the Word of God without any barrier, linguistically speaking, Rickett pointed out. When you begin to delve into the details of Biblical Hebrew you see, not just what Scripture says, but how each author says it uniquely. It’s exciting and compels you to Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: Hebrew alphabet. (credit: Neo Scholar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
