Aug 19 2010
John Cook and Robert Holmstedt have struck again with a new textbook, Biblical Hebrew: An Illustrated Introduction, moving in a completely different pedagogic direction than the majority of competing methods of learning Biblical Hebrew, including their own venture, Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar. But don't discard your copy of Lambdin just yet, it is presently in draft form only, but looks to have great promise.
Jul 06 2010
Mark Roberts has posted an intriguing article, What Language(s) Did Jesus Speak? The Circumstantial Evidence. The content of the article proposes a not too unusual answer–Aramaic and possibly Hebrew and/or Greek. He seems to be more keen on the idea of Jesus speaking Greek instead of Hebrew, but nonetheless capitulates that Hebrew is a possibility.
There are several problems with such a suggestion, not the least of which is that saying Jesus spoke "Aramaic" or "Hebrew" (or even for that matter "Greek") is not really telling us what language he spoke. Aramaic was not a single linguistic unit in the first century: what is generally labeled "Aramaic" includes a very wide range of languages and dialects. A similar problem arises for the Hebrew of the first century–when comparing the evidence from two examples closest to first century Hebrew, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Tannaitic literature, one finds quite divergent characteristics. (Even though I am no expert, there is evidence for different linguistic strata within Greek as well.)
Further, there is very scant evidence not only for the linguistic community in which he was raised (which the article does well to point out), but the internal evidence within the NT is limited to only a handful of "Aramaic" sayings which do not provide enough data to assess definitively the appropriate dialect/language of one particular individual (setting aside the idiolect problem).
So what can we say about the language(s) of Jesus? The NT evidence points to a dialect of Aramaic, but at our present knowledge of first century Aramaic it would be pure supposition to move too far beyond this point.
UPDATE: Roberts on Jesus' use of Hebrew
Oct 28 2008
As many readers are aware, Professor Muraoka has revised for a second time Paul Joüon’s classic Grammaire de l’hébreu biblique (Rome: Institut biblique pontifical, 1923). This updated volume is available in a one volume hardback version published by the Pontifical Biblical Institute (2006). Additionally, Logos Bible Software is developing an electronic version of the revised edition, and Mac users may add it to their Accordance software. Both of which are less expensive than the actual print version and provide advanced searching and cross referencing.
Jun 16 2008
Several readers have asked for an indexed key to the sentence typology (i.e. diagramming) system found on DailyHebrew.com. The basic units are listed below with examples and sundry notes. Please remember that these posts were written over a four-year period, so some variation exists within how these categories are applied.
Abbreviations used:
S Subject
O Object
V Verb
M [Adverbial] Modifier
P Predicate (no explicit verbal element)
IO Indirect Object (*see note below*)
OC Object Complement
SC Subject Complement (*see note below*)
Examples:
וַיָּשֻׁ֜בוּ שְׁנֵ֤י הָֽאֲנָשִׁים
And-they-returned the-two men.
V-S
וַיַּצֶּב־שָׁ֖ם מִזְבֵּ֑חַ
And-he-built there an-altar.
V-M-O
וּמֹשֶׁ֗ה הָיָ֥ה רֹעֶ֛ה אֶת־צֹ֛אן יִתְר֥וֹ חֹתְנֹ֖ו כֹּהֵ֣ן מִדְיָ֑ן
Now-Moses was pasturing the-flock of-Jethro, his father-in-law, the-priest of-Midian.
S-V-O
וּמַאֲכָֽלְךָ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תֹּאכֲלֶ֔נּוּ בְּמִשְׁק֕וֹל עֶשְׂרִ֥ים שֶׁ֖קֶל לַיּ֑וֹם
And-your-food which you-shall-eat-it [will be] by-weight twenty shekels for-each-day
S-P
Embedded Clause (תֹּאכֲלֶ֔נּוּ): V-O
Notes:
Apr 07 2007
Chris Heard shares some thoughts about Practico & Van Pelt's BH Teaching Grammar on his blog Higgaion. It seems to me that each teaching grammar (as well as the intermediate grammars) has positive and negative features. This means that where the grammar is weak we need to provide supplemental instruction/material. If this were not so, there would not be need for a teacher!