General Category > General Discussion
Is Hebrew a Canaanite dialect?
Zelhar:
--- Quote from: Kahane-Was-Right BT on March 18, 2010, 03:09:13 PM ---
--- Quote from: Zelhar on March 18, 2010, 03:00:21 PM ---
--- Quote from: White Israelite on March 18, 2010, 02:52:13 PM ---That didn't really answer my question on the language, did Hebrew come from Canaanite languages?
--- End quote ---
Yes and I think the Talmudic scholars themselves acknowledge that Abraham and his hairs had adopted the language of Canaan. Also Phoenician is also a dialect or a close offshoot of Canaanite.
--- End quote ---
Really? Never heard of this but sounds interesting. Please point me to a source if you have it, I'd like to look into that...
--- End quote ---
I think I am out of sources (I just remember hearing this claim but when I think of this, I probably came into it in school - secular school).
In ספר הכוזרי The book of Kuzari by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, it is claimed that Hebrew is the holy tongue which God used to communicate to Adam and Eve and all the prophets that followed. It had been the universal language until the split of the nations in the days of Peleg פלג, ever since then it had been preserved by Eber עבר (thus the name עברית) and passed to his descendant Abraham who kept the knowledge Hebrew (hence he is called the Hebrew העברי), even though the language of Ur Kasdim was Aramaic.
Unfortunately, the Kuzari doesn't explain why and how the Canaanites came to speak a language that is closest to Hebrew to the point of being a dialect. Did Abraham taught them to speak this language ? What language did they speak before Abraham came to Canaan ?
I will try to look into this.
MassuhDGoodName:
Here is a link to an academic text found online which I offer for the benefit of anyone wishing to read about Canaan in more depth. I am not personally endorsing this text or the author's version of history which it offers. That being said, it seems to offer a good beginning primer for anyone wanting to research the ancient Middle East as it existed during the time of our Patriarchs. I learned a good deal from reading it. Do bear in mind that it is an academic, as opposed to a spiritually based text, yet seems to support overall the history found in Torah.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/chap9.html
Kahane-Was-Right BT:
--- Quote from: MassuhDGoodName on March 18, 2010, 06:30:02 PM ---Here is a link to an academic text found online which I offer for the benefit of anyone wishing to read about Canaan in more depth. I am not personally endorsing this text or the author's version of history which it offers. That being said, it seems to offer a good beginning primer for anyone wanting to research the ancient Middle East as it existed during the time of our Patriarchs. I learned a good deal from reading it. Do bear in mind that it is an academic, as opposed to a spiritually based text, yet seems to support overall the history found in Torah.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/chap9.html
--- End quote ---
I'm definitely going to read that.
I'm curious, why don't you endorse it?
muman613:
--- Quote from: MassuhDGoodName on March 18, 2010, 06:30:02 PM ---Here is a link to an academic text found online which I offer for the benefit of anyone wishing to read about Canaan in more depth. I am not personally endorsing this text or the author's version of history which it offers. That being said, it seems to offer a good beginning primer for anyone wanting to research the ancient Middle East as it existed during the time of our Patriarchs. I learned a good deal from reading it. Do bear in mind that it is an academic, as opposed to a spiritually based text, yet seems to support overall the history found in Torah.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/chap9.html
--- End quote ---
I looked at that link and it certainly is not Jewish in nature... It uses the uneffable name and implies some things which I find objectionable.
Basically he is saying that Hebrew culture was a backward step from the Caananites:
For example:
--- Quote ---THE Hebrews entered a land with its own highly developed culture. During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, Canaan was dotted with strong, walled, industrial and trade centers surrounded by orchards, vineyards, grain fields and pasture land. Wool and flax were woven and dyed with the rich purple obtained from the Murex shellfish. Wine, dried fruits, grain and milk products were also produced. Minerals from the Wadi Arabah were smelted and fashioned into ornaments, tools and weapons for sale and exchange. The rich lived in magnificent villas built around central courts; the poor dwelt in hovels massed together. Slaves captured in battle, and the poor who sold their families and themselves to meet debts, contributed to the power and wealth of the few.
Canaanite religion, a fertility or nature religion, reflected the major concerns of the populace — increase and productivity. Until recently, information about Canaanite belief was drawn largely from the negative statements in the Bible, but since 1928 new data has been forthcoming. While plowing a field, a farmer discovered a Canaanite necropolis at Ras es-Shamra in northern Syria at a point along the seacoast to which the "finger" of Cyprus appears to be pointing. Excavations began in 1929 under the direction of Claude F. A. Schaeffer of France and have continued since with only a brief interruption during World War II. The necropolis belonged to the ancient city of Ugarit, known to scholars from references in the El Amarna texts. The city was destroyed in the fourteenth century by an earthquake and then rebuilt, only to fall in the twelfth century to the hoards of Sea People. It was never rebuilt and was ultimately forgotten. One of the excavator's most exciting discoveries was a temple dedicated to the god Ba'al with a nearby scribal school containing numerous tablets relating the myths of Ba'al written in a Semitic dialect but in a cuneiform script never before encountered. The language was deciphered and the myths translated, providing many parallels to Canaanite practices condemned in the Bible and making it possible to suggest that the religion of Ba'al as practiced in Ugarit was very much like that of the Canaanites of Palestine.
--- End quote ---
MassuhDGoodName:
And for further research into the ancient Middle East, focusing in particular on ancient Canaan and ancient Phoenicia*, here is another valuable source for study:
http://phoenicia.org/
*I believe this website is the work of an actual descendant of the ancient Phoenicians who either lived, or still lives, in Lebanon. Its historical basis, therefore, is not from a Jewish or Torah perspective, but from a modern Lebanese nationalist proud of his Phoenician heritage. Therefore, read and use your own discernment to take from it what you judge to be of value; take the rest "with a grain of salt". I recommend many of the links from this website for further study, with the same caveat offered. The link showing a virtual ancient Phoenician temple is most interesting, and there are sound files of music as it was performed in ancient times.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version