Can you settle a debate about HEBREW?

Question

Two of my friends are arguing over Hebrew. One insists that modern Hebrew, as now spoken in Israel, is very different from 'ancient' or 'classical' Hebrew.

But another friend insists it's very similar and that apart from some words having to be added for things that didn't exist back then, biblical hebrew and today's hebrew are remarkably similar.

I tend to agree with the latter. Can anyone resolve this for us please? All info much appreciated, thanks :)

Answer 1

modern hebrew is very similar to bibilical hebrew, as you say, except the changes that were added to compensate for modern needs.
any israeli kid who can read hebrew can read the bible and find it much easier to understand than, let's say, an english speaking person finds it to read shakespeare and his contemporaries.
the letters did change over the years, but still are relatively easy to make out.

Answer 2

The two are different, but not so drastically. Modern Hebrew speakers can understand the Old Testament (more or less), which is certainly archaic Hebrew. To contrast, if an English speaker attempted to read the Canterbury Tales in original (which are only a couple hundred years old) they would have enormous diffculty. Thousands of years have passed between Hebrew being a common spoken language, thus the language as it is today is somewhat different from how it was. Obviously languages change over time, as has happened here. As a side point then, it is false to say that modern Hebrew is distinct from ancient Hebrew based on these differences, because languages aren't static. Another side point is that Hebrew was never a dead language as people suppose. Throughout all of history, primary works of religion were written in Hebrew. The language may not have been spoken by all, but the learned men and the Rabbis became a bastion of knowledge and Hebrew understanding. It was through these Rabbis that the language was brought once again to the people. All in all, I would agree with the latter opinion that the dialects are remarkably similar, while allowing for differences as time and history would dictate.

Answer 3

Modern Hebrew is very similar to Classical Hebrew with many words being the same.

However, among Ashkenazi Jews the pronounciation is different as Modern Hebrew uses the Sephardi pronounciation. Many Religious Jews would argue that the languages are significantly different but some sects only use Hebrew for Prayer (even in Israel) and their first spoken language is Yiddish or Ladino.

It's not like Ancient and Modern Greek which (according to a friend who is a Professor of Classics) are significantly different. Most speakers of Classical Hebrew can understand nearly everything in Modern Hebrew allowing for a few differences in pronounciation.

I studied Modern Hebrew at school and the teacher taught us using the Mishnah (in Classical Hebrew) with the proviso that he only taught us words that were identical in classical and modern Hebrew - this turned out to be the majority.

Answer 4

For the most part, the words in Modern Hebrew are the same as those in Ancient Hebrew which could be UNDERSTOOD by anyone speaking Modern Hebrew; however, the SYNTAX of a book like Isaiah is subtler than its Modern Hebrew rendering!

Answer 5

Modern Hebrew stems from ancient Hebrew and is very similar. Your first friend is probably thinking of Aramaic which is the language of the ancient text and is still used today in Jewish prayer and some hebrew words but ancient Hebrew is Canaanite , not Aramaic

Answer 6

Paperback, just like her former nickname Tabatha, admits to being ignorant of the Hebrew language.

Why flaunt it?

The answer is of course that many if not most of the words of Biblical Hebrew appear in Modern Hebrew, while the grammar of Modern Hebrew is most like that of Medieval Hebrew.

Answer 7

You must distinguish between the vocabulary of Modern Hebrew, which is one thing, and the structure of Modern Hebrew, which is quite another.

From the middle of the 7th century, Aramaic began influencing Hebrew. The development went from Biblical Hebrew to Mishnaic Hebrew to Medieval Hebrew to Modern Hebrew.

In its grammar, Modern Hebrew closely follows that of Biblical Hebrew, with certain modifications that come from Mishnaic Hebrew and Medieval Hebrew.

Modern Hebrew contains the entire vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew, with much borrowing from Mishnaic Hebrew and Medieval Hebrew. Not to mention large numbers of new words coined in modern times.


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Answer 8

Modern Hebrew was a creation of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, and he tried to keep the modern language as close as possible to the ancient one. Of course he had to add many words for items which didn't exist in ancient times, but where possible he based them on pre-existing ones.

Other slang words have been created by modern Israelis, and some original words are now seen as old-fashioned, but the two languages are still very similar.

Since moving to Israel two years ago I have been learning modern Hebrew, and I now find that I can understand most of the words in ancient Hebrew prayers.

Reading ancient Hebrew is for me about the same as reading Shakespeare - basically an antiquated form of the modern language I speak. By comparison, reading Chaucer's English (dating back to around 1400 AD) is much harder - that really does seem like a different language.

Londoner In Israel

Answer 9

In the 12th century B.C.E., Hebrew, which earlier may have been almost identical with Phoenician, developed into an independent language. Hebrew was spoken by the Patriarchs during the Biblical period. In the last century B.C.E., the alphabet of Hebrew, which is still used today, was developed. The Bible was written in Hebrew. In the post-Biblical period, Aramaic gradually replaced Hebrew as the spoken language, but Hebrew was still used as the language of ritual, prayer, literature, and written communication for centuries. Rabbinical Hebrew, used in the Mishnah, developed around 200 CE. By the 9th century, the use of Hebrew declined, and the language was being used only for religious purposes.

In the late 19th century, Modern Hebrew was developed along with the rise of Zionism. In 1913, Hebrew became the language of instruction in Jewish schools in Palestine. In 1948, Hebrew became the official language of the newly established State of Israel. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda devoted his life to and deserves the credit for the successful revival of Hebrew in the 19th century.

Please check these links below for more information about Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and revival of the Hebrew language.

Answer 10

Why don't u make ur friend explain how different is the classical hebrew from the modern hebrew that shud solve ur dilemma. Ask him/her to get proofs and justifications and ask for a explanation pertaining to the changes thats the best way to make ur point clear enuf. I am inclined to the later opinion myself but just incase ur friend insists on classical hebrew being way too different then the modern then she/he shud explain it with good proof and explanation with comparisions.

Answer 11

Most definitely it is the same language. The stile may be different but anyone who speaks modern Hebrew can read and understand Scriptures. There are books in Scriptures such as Genisis which are written in very simple and very easily understood Hebrew and some other books such as Jeremia and some others that are written in a very high stile which is archaic today. Still it is understood by people who can read Hebrew, just not as easily. Just think that someone would use word thou instead of you and shalt instead of shell. It is a bit simplistic comparison but it would do.