Why do christians always call hebrew "jewish"?

Question

All my christian friends keep asking me if i can speak in" jewish" and i always tell them its called hebrew. why dont they ever learn?

Answer 1

First of all, regarding the cat above that says everyone who speaks hebrew is Jewish... I'm Catholic, raised Methodist, never been Jewish, aval ani mhevina Ivrit... You don't have to be Jewish to understand hebrew, you just have to learn it. It's a language (a sacred one, but a language nonetheless).

Now, to answer the question at hand.

I speak a lot of languages, and I can tell you from experience that, if you live in the states, there isn't exactly a wide culture of well-travelled and informed people asking you these types of questions. But you should be patient with them; you're probably the first Jewish person that they know they've met (it's possible that they already know a few others, and just never gave it the thought that those people might not be white-bread protestants like themselves). What's good is that they're making some sort of effort to try to culture themselves, and you should help facilitate that effort. But don't let them think the Only Jewish language is Hebrew, or the next time someone mentions Yiddish, they'll think it's the same language.

Teach. It's the best thing you can do. It's the best thing anyone can do. And if they bother to ask about "jewish"-the-language, then they must want to learn.

to-da, shalom, ~mir

Answer 2

Actually, the biblical name of the language that is now known as "Hebrew" is "Jewish".
In "Isaiah" 36: 11, 13 and in "Second Kings" 18: 26, the emissaries of king Hezekiah call their language "Yehudit": "a Jewish one (language)".
So technically, your Christian friends are not completely wrong...
Furthermore, Hebrew was the sacred language of the Jews- and the Jews only- for centuries, and it is now widely spoken only in the state of Israel, which is a Jewish country. So Jews do "own" the language, in a way, what makes it easier for some to be confused.

But you are right when you're saying that Hebrew is Hebrew, as most of the world calls it that way and even the Hebrew speakers call it "Ivrit" ("a Hebrew one").

~
Try to be patient and tolerant with those people, and explain them their mistake... People like to learn new things.

Answer 3

nonjews may refer to Hebrew as Jewish, although I usually think of Yiddish as Jewish, if anything.
I think some people may think of Hebrew as Jewish because it is the official language of Israel and because it was the creation of the state of Israel and its founders' desire to be a Jewish notion which is responsible for the resurrection of the language. One hundred years ago, virtually no-one spoke the language except during religious acts. It was not a language used anywhere as the daily tongue, lingua franca if you will. It was considered a dead language, much as latin is today. Were the Italians to decide that Latin was their language and embrace it, a few years from now,latin would make its comeback, too
perhaps folk think of Hebrew as Jewish because of these reasons, and because Israeli's think and say all the time that Hebrew is the language of the Jews.

Answer 4

Because Hebrew is spoken as an official language in the only Jewish nation in the world, and rarely do non-Jews learn it.

By the way, 'diil;r h', you shouldn't go around proclaiming you are smart if you can't even write a simple sentence in a manner someone can understand. If you want to sound smart, learn how to say it.

Answer 5

ignorance. i don't mean tha in a bad way but look at how often people say things that aren't true just here on the R&S questions. they think they know & since they aren't taught differently.... i try to ask when i'm not sure - which is what i thought these boards were going to be about.
here's one - i thought the Jews spoke Yiddish and/or Hebrew - Yiddish being the spoken and Hebrew being the written. see, it's just common ignorance. not that i'm stupid but - it's miscomceptions.
gracious you should have heard my friend laugh (he jewish so i go to him on all sorts of things) when i asked him about a glock Kosher meal i needed for an event. he roared and said no it's not a gun it's a dinner and it's glatt. i was then schooled and then i knew.
for some people who are too set in their ways, it's harder for them to learn. just keep plugging away and maybe, you can teach them some words and phrases!

Answer 6

Because most of them were raised to say Jewish. I went to a private Catholic school and in our theology class most cases we would refer to Jesus as being a jewish and in other cases hebrew.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, a lot of words have different ways of saying them and mean the same thing.

Answer 7

OBVIOUSLY, because ALL (if not, then MOST) of the people who speak Hebrew are Jewish!

Answer 8

The historical truth is that the current people who call themselves Jews today are not the ancient Hebrews. Also it will shock you silly when you find out who the ancient Hebrew really were period. Another thing The Jews of today want to be called Jews. And its is only proper to call people what they wish to be called. I do believe that you really need to read your Bible in depth and take a trip to your local library and read about who the Ancient Hebrews really were. If you do you are really in for a surprise............

Answer 9

They're ignorant. Nothing wrong with ignorance, we are ALL ignorant about something. Their CHOOSING to remain ignorant, otoh, is frustrating. Try to cut them some slack, but if they keep it up, tell them it ain't funny or cool.
You could always call them a Hebrew word and they wouldn't know what it means.

Answer 10

Christians have lots of funny ideas about Jewish people, culture, language, etc.

Then again, don't we all have mistaken ideas about other cultures until we learn otherwise?