Introduction

8.1. Introduction
You know more words of the Old Testament languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, than you thought. Christians often use Hebrew names for God, such as Elohim (God), Yahweh (proper name of God, often translated LORD), Adonai (Lord), Tseba’ot (Hosts), Elyon (Almighty) and Shaddai (Almighty, He who is sufficient).
A few English words were taken directly from Hebrew.
Alphabet|Alef, Beyt|
Amen|Āmēn (certainly) |
Camel |Gāmāl (desert animal) |
Cane |Qāneh (tube, reed)|
Hallelujah |Halelûyāch (praise the Lord)|
Hosanna |Hôshȋ‘ȃ nȃ (please save)|
Kosher|Kȃshēr (be appropriate)|
Messiah|Māshı̂ah (anointed)|
Pharisee |Pārash (separate)|
Rabbi |Rabbı̂ (master, great one)|
Sabbath|Shabbāt (day of rest)|
Satan |Sāthān (adversary)|
Seraph |Sārāph (celestial being)|
Shalom |Shālôm (peace)|
Sheol|She’ôl (underworld)|
Shofar |Shôphār (ram’s horn)|
There are some Aramaic words in the New Testament, such as:
· Talitha koum ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up’ (Mark 5:41).
· Abba ‘Father’ (Mark 14:36).
· Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’(Mark 15:34).
· Maranatha (1 Cor. 16:22). The word transliterated maranatha, may mean: ‘Our Lord, Come!’(Marana-tha) or ‘Our Lord has come!’(Maran-atha).
8.1.1. Languages of the Old Testament
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and some parts in Aramaic. Almost 99% of the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language (23,213 verses). The Aramaic section is very small. It consists of a few chapters and verses in Genesis (31:47, two words); Ezra (4:8-6:18; 7:12-26); Jeremiah (10:11); Daniel (2:4-7:28).
8.1.2. Name of the languages
The language of the Israelites is called yehudit, the ‘language of Judah’ (2 Kgs 18:26; Isa. 36:11; Neh. 13:24; 2 Chron. 32:18) and shephat Kena’an (literally: lip of Canaan) ‘language of Canaan’ (Isa. 19:18). The name ‘Hebrew’ ivrît does not appear in the Old Testament.
Aramaic (’ārāmȋt) is called Syriack (see Dan. 2:4) and ‘Syrian language’ (2 Kgs 18:26; Ezra 4:7; Isa. 36:11) in the KJV. A previous generation of Old Testament scholars called the Aramaic language Chaldean.
8.1.3. Language family
Hebrew and Aramaic are related languages. They belong to the Semitic language group within the Afro-asiatic language families. The Semitic languages were the predominant language groups of the Middle East. In scholarly research, these languages are classified into two groups according to their geographic distribution: (1) East Semitic and (2) West Semitic languages. The East Semitic group has only one language, Akkadian, the language of the Babylonians and Assyrians. The West Semitic group is divided into the Northwest (present day Lebanon and Syria) and the Southwest (Arabian Peninsula and Ethiopia) Semitic language. The Northwest has three main families: (1) Amorite and Ugaritic, (2) Canaanite languages, and (3) Aramaic. Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite language group, together with Phoenician, Punic, Moabite, Edomite, and Ammonite. It is no wonder that Hebrew was called ‘the language of Canaan’ (Isa. 19:18).
[See image10]
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Figure 1: Map of the Semitic languages