So I was having some debates with people on paltalk in the middle east section and some are stating that Hebrew is a Canaanite dialect, is this true? Paleohebrew does look pretty similar to Phoenician.
Wikipedia has Hebrew listed as a Canaanite dialect but anyone can modify that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_dialects
If this is the case, what caused the Hebrews to pick up Canaanite dialect and what was the language spoken before this?
What's also strange is if Hebrew is a Canaanite dialect and the Palestinians And Lebanese claim to be the descendants of Canaanites, why do they not speak a Canaanite dialect and speak Arabic?
A lot of secular scholars are doing everything they can to discredit the Exodus story and say that the Jews never had their heroic victories of the Bible. Their motivation is not true scientific inquiry but hatred of the Bible and hatred of Jewish people.
Muman not to be morbid or gross, but where does it say they didn't have bodily functions? If they ate and drank, well, it had to go somewhere right?
From the Parasha of the manna, we clearly see that happiness has nothing to do with having things. What could be better than the manna? From a spiritual perspective, Chaza"l tell us it was the food of angels; it was the concretization of the aura of Divine Presence (Ziv haShechina). From a physical perspective,... imagine sitting down to a meal and wishing what you want and that is what it tastes like! Could there be anything better in the world than Manna? And .... there's no waste! We all know the problems that stem from the digestive system. With the Manna, there were no digestive problems.
But what did the Jewish People say? "...we are getting disgusted from this wasteless food" [Bamidbar 21:5]. Why don't we like it? Because there is no waste! We can't stand this manna! Why? Because we don't have to go to the bathroom!
Rav Pam says "If one doesn't like manna, he'll never like anything!" Manna is the proof that happiness has nothing to do with having things or having items. Happiness is dependent on a person's perspective on life. One can be terribly happy with very little and terribly miserable with very much.
Rav Pam, switching from Yiddish to English, quoted a quip he once heard: "Everyone looks for the City of Happiness, but they fail to realize that the City of Happiness is in the State of Mind". That is the lesson of the Manna you either learn to look at life positively (be a sameach b'chelko) or you'll never ever be happy.
The Jews in this week's Parasha complain about the mann. This is repeated in Parashat BeHaloscha. "Mann for breakfast, mann for lunch, mann for supper, nothing but Mann! Oh for the good old days of Egypt!" In the middle of the description of the section of mann in BeHaloscha, the pasuk says "And the mann was like coriander seed and its color was like the color of b'dolach" [Bamidbar 11:7]. Rashi mentions that this pasuk is an editorial interjection. The pasukim before and after this interlude describe what the Jewish people were saying. Suddenly, in the middle of the discussion, the Torah comments: "And the mann was like coriander seed..."
Rashi explains: Come and let the world see what my children are complaining about. The mann is so special and so beautiful and yet they even complain about the mann. Mann was both a physical and a spiritual food. It tasted however the person wanted it to taste. It was a food that did not produce body waste. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It came at no cost; there was no effort in preparing meals. No mess, no fuss, low cholesterol, high fiber, non-fattening – anything one wanted! And nevertheless they complained about the mann.
These are the same people who could complain that they had mud on their shoes from the bottom of the Reed Sea. It is the same psychological phenomenon. Such people will never be happy. There are such people in the world.
The Gemara in Tractate Yomah tells us that the Mann was the physical manifestation of the food that sustained the angels. Ramban explains that the Radiance of Hashem sustains angels and thus the Mann was the materialized version of that Radiance. This is the reason why the Mann was absorbed directly and completely into the internal organs and did not generate waste because of it spiritual purity. Evidently the Jews needed to be spiritualized in order to comprehend and absorb the Torah and therefore Hashem provided them with the Mann as the means for them to gain that requisite spiritual capacity.
That didn't really answer my question on the language, did Hebrew come from Canaanite languages?
That didn't really answer my question on the language, did Hebrew come from Canaanite languages?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.
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...That didn't really answer my question on the language, did Hebrew come from Canaanite languages?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.
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).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...That didn't really answer my question on the language, did Hebrew come from Canaanite languages?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.
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 (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/chap9.html)
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 (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/chap9.html)
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.
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/ (http://phoenicia.org/)
Muman, I already read that same passage, and it says nothing about what the Hebrew culture was, so how can it be saying it's a step down? I think you read that into it.
It's merely describing what the canaanite culture consisted of because it's a study of the canaanites, not the Hebrews. Did you think they lived without a culture? (somehow?)
On the basis of archaeological study, it is surmised that three kinds of Hebrew settlements were developed.12 Villages were built on abandoned tells or in previously unoccupied areas. Where Canaanite cities had been destroyed, new dwellings were constructed amid the ruins. In some instances, by mutual agreement, Hebrews settled more or less peacefully among the Canaanites (Josh. 9:3-7). By comparison with Canaanite dwellings, Hebrew houses were poorly built. In new villages little attention was given to town planning and homes were constructed wherever the owner desired. Defensive walls were relatively weak and crudely composed, revealing limited mastery of structural engineering principles. Hebrew pottery, in contrast to well levigated, well fired Canaanite ware, appears quite poorly made. Some Hebrews ventured into Canaanite agricultural and commercial pursuits, others continued to raise flocks and herds (I Sam. 17:15, 34; 25:2). Despite efforts of a conservative element, fiercely loyal to old tribal ways, Canaanite cultural patterns were gradually assimilated. The unsettled nature of the times is revealed by the numerous destroyed layers from the thirteenth to eleventh centuries found in some excavations.
A further clarification of "...why don't you endorse it?"
I take no responsibility for anything other than listing two hyperlinks. No one has to read them; and anyone who does read them is free to draw their own conclusions as regards the information they contain.
I strongly reject the idea that only science can determine "the facts". It is most likely that two to three thousand years time into the future there will be no archaeological evidence that I ever existed, but would such evidence be "proof" that I was never logged on and writing this reply?