REL 200 Flashcards
What are the primary languages of the Bible for Jews and Christians?
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
Which language is the predominant language of the Hebrew Bible?
Hebrew
Hebrew belongs to which language family?
Semitic language family
What are the two branches of the Semitic language family?
Eastern and western branches
To which subgroup does Hebrew belong?
Northwestern subgroup
What languages are related to Hebrew?
- Phoenician
- Ammonite
- Edomite
- Moabite
- Ugaritic
What inscriptional evidence indicates Hebrew was written as early as the tenth century BCE?
The Gezer Calendar
List some examples of inscriptional evidence for Hebrew in the Iron Age.
- Kuntillet Ajrud pithoi
- Khirbet el-Qom tomb inscriptions
- Samaria ostraca
- Siloam Tunnel inscription
Fill in the blank: Hebrew is part of the __________ subgroup.
[northwestern]
True or False: Hebrew is unrelated to Ugaritic.
False
What are the Arad letters and Lachish letters?
They are letters from the sixth century BCE and seals and seal impressions from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE.
What is the oldest fragment of a text containing verses now in the Bible?
A silver amulet dating to the sixth century CE from a burial site outside Jerusalem, containing a version of the priestly blessing from Num 6.24-26.
How was Hebrew used after the second century CE?
Hebrew became a language of worship and scholarship, referred to as ‘the holy language’ (‘leshon haggodesh’).
What movement revived Hebrew as a spoken language in the 19th century?
The Zionist movement in Europe and Palestine.
What is the Hebrew term for the language referred to in the Hebrew Bible?
Yehudit (‘Judahite’).
What term is used in Isaiah 19.18 to refer to Hebrew?
The ‘language of Canaan’ (‘lip of Canaan’).
What script were all Hebrew inscriptions from the Iron Age written in?
The ancient Israelite script, often called Paleo-Hebrew.
How was the Paleo-Hebrew script written?
From right to left, using twenty-two consonants and without vowels.
What script replaced Paleo-Hebrew during the Persian period?
The Aramaic square script.
What significant texts are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Fragmentary manuscripts of the books of the Torah and Job written in Paleo-Hebrew script.
What is the Samaritan Pentateuch?
The canonical text of the Samaritan community, copied in a Paleo-Hebrew script dated to the second century BCE.
What is Aramaic?
A northwest Semitic language closely related to Hebrew, used as the main chancellery language of the Persian Empire.
What role did Aramaic play among Jews during the Persian period?
It became the common language of governance, commerce, and day-to-day interaction.
What percentage of the Qumran scrolls are in Aramaic?
Approximately fifteen percent.