06.07. Languages of Israel and its Neighbours

Languages of Israel and its Neighbours

Initially, Israel used the Hebrew language. When they went into captivity, they started to speak the language of their captors. In Babylon, they spoke Aramaic. The conquest of the Greeks brought their language into the region. The Greek language became the universal language, similar to English in our time. The Romans spoke Latin and the neighbours of Israel spoke their own languages such as Arabic.

Instead of the characters anciently employed, the exiles brought with them, on their return, those now common, the so-called square Hebrew letters, which gradually came into general use. (Sanh. 21b) The language spoken by the Jews was no longer Hebrew, but Aramaean, both in Palestine and in Babylonia; in the former the Western, in the latter the Eastern dialect. In fact, the common people were ignorant of pure Hebrew, which henceforth became the language of students and of the Synagogue. Even there a Methurgeman, or interpreter, had to be employed to translate into the vernacular the portions of Scripture read in the public services, and the address delivered by the Rabbis. This was the origin of the so-called Targumim, or paraphrases of Scripture.^xx We see the diversity of languages they spoke at Pentecost in the beginning of the book of Acts.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. … “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language in which we were born? “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” (Acts 2:5-11 LSB)