A Brief History of the Hebrew Language
Adapted from Biblical Hebrew Step by Step (Menahem Mansoor, Baker Book House, 1980) and
How the Hebrew Language Grew (Edward Horowitz, Ktav Publishing House, 1988.
A. Biblical (Classical) Hebrew was the spoken and written language of the Old Testament. It was spoken by the Jewish people (or Israelites) until the Babylonian exile in 586 BC. After 586, the Jewish people began to speak Aramaic, the political and cultural language of the Near East.
B. Rabinnical (Late) Hebrew: In 70 AD the Romans burned the Temple in Jerusalem and the Jews scattered from Israel in what is known as "the Diaspora." From this point, Judaism and Christianity began to diverge. Judaism developed commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures (the Talmud, Mishnah, etc.) which were written in Rabbinic Hebrew. C. Medieval (Rabbinic) Hebrew was the Hebrew used in the great philosophical and poetic works of the Middle Ages, mainly in Spain and North Africa. D. Modern Hebrew was the language revived by Eliezar Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922) during a time of fervent Zionism. He wrote a dictionary of all the words he could find in the Old Testament Scriptures and also included new words (e.g. computer, radio, etc.) that his contemporaries would need to use.
Hebrew is the only known revival of a "dead language." However, the fascinating thing about Hebrew is that if Abraham were to walk into Modern Israel today, he would be understood by people on the street. Unlike other languages (like our own English language) Hebrew has not changed that drastically.
