Hebrew - Language Of The Tanakh

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We have seen that Hebrew was spoken at Creation and that it became recognised as the language of Canaan. It also became the language of the Tanakh, the Holy Scriptures of the Jewish people and the Christian Old Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures were written over a period of about one and a half millennium, from the days of Moses in about 1500 B.C.E., to several hundred years after the Babylonian exile in 586 B.C.E. No language remains unchanged over such a long period of time. Consider the King James Version of the Bible, for example: it is not even 400 years since this translation was completed, and yet the English has changed so much that many native English speakers find the language of the KJV very difficult to understand.
 

Hebrew, too, has changed over the centuries. There are many differences between the Hebrew of the early books in the Tanakh, such as Genesis and Exodus, and the later books composed after the exile, such as Esther and Daniel. But despite this, there is a remarkable consistency in Biblical Hebrew. The differences are relatively minor and consist mainly of changes in vocabulary and style. To illustrate this, consider Jeremiah chapter 36: Baruch reads the words of the Law (written nearly 1000 years earlier) to the people and to the king, and yet they all understand it perfectly. This would be impossible with any other language. The English of 1000 years ago bears only a passing resemblance to the language you are reading now!

Ever since the canon of the Tanakh was closed, for the past two thousand years, the Hebrew Scriptures have remained unchanged. Centuries have past. Wars have been fought. Nations have come and gone. Empires have fallen. The Jewish people have been driven from their land, only to return again in 1948, speaking the Hebrew language once again. Yet despite all these worldwide changes, the Hebrew Bible has remained intact, faithfully copied down through the generations and down through the centuries. It has been a silent enduring witness to the Hebrew language, the Hebrew Bible, and the message it contains. It has survived attempts to destroy it. Its people have survived attempts to destroy them. Like the Jewish people themselves, the Tanakh has survived its harshest critics and seen its enemies perish in the grave. Yet still it stands, preserved down through thousands of years, ready for Elijah and the coming of the Messiah – until he comes whose right it is (Ezekiel 21:27).

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