Ancient Hebrew

Ancient Hebrew, also known as Biblical Hebrew or Classical Hebrew, is the original language of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible also known as the Torah or Tanakh which is the religious text of Judiasm.

Hebrew is read from right to left, just the opposite of English and many modern languages which are read from left to right.

In its original written form, Hebrew contained no vowles, only consanents. It was not until the Masoretes, between the 7th and 10th centuries AD, added to the translations of the Hebrew text, markers under the letters to indicate vowles, as a help in pronounciation. One exception is when the name of God was written. YHWH spelled in Hebrew as יהוה, contains only four letters and is commonly known as Yehweh, Yehovah, or Jehovah. As an interesting side note יהוה is the first "four letter word" known by scholars as the tetragrammatron (greek for "four letter word")

God officially introduced himself by name to Moses in Exodus 3:14 as אהיה אשר אהיה(I am that I am), and YHWH strictly translated in Hebrew is the uncongigated verb "to be". Jewish tradition holds that it is a sin to speak the name of God and such is the reason for leaving out helps for pronounciation when transcribing the text in Hebrew. Today Jews pronounce יהוה as HeShem (the name), a pronoun for "The Name of God"

Beginning students of Ancient Hebrew, especially those whose first language is of Latin origin need to strip away what they know about modern language, forget all the rules they learned in school about grammar and punctuation, and start fresh. Reading from right to left and top to bottom. Biblical Hebrew is a dead language and was breathing its last breaths about the same time Jesus was walking the earth. Hebrew texts were written, and transcribed on scrolls not in bound books and the Bible of Biblical times looked very different from the Bible of today. The modern equivilant to what the Hebrew bible might have looked like in ancient times is rolls of architectual drawings in the planning department at city hall.

In its original form, Ancient Hebrew is all but gone. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the best example of Biblical Hebrew that exist today. In modern times scholors and students of Biblical Hebrew use the Masoretic Text (MT). The MT was formed by the Masoretes (mentioned above) who added markings under words to aid with pronounciation as well as give definition to the text with designations for chapter and verse within the books of the Old Testament.

New students of Biblical Hebrew should start with the MT because it includes the vowles that the original text does not. Conventionally the book of Ruth is the starting point for new translators to Biblical Hebrew. The book of Ruth is the easiest to translate, perhaps because the book does not contain any controvercial theological topics, or because beautiful love stories are easily understood despite language barriers.

See also

• Topic:Hebrew