Why is the language in which Scripture was first written so important?

The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew. The language through which the New Testament came to the Gentile world was Greek. This is because Greek was the language that was widespread at the time of the first apostles - not because Greek was to replace Hebrew as the language of Scripture.

A lot can be gained by understanding the scriptures through the Hebrew language and with a Hebraic way of thinking. You may already study Hebrew as an aid to Bible study - if not, why not consider doing so?

Hebrew Language and Culture

Language has a powerful effect on the lives of people. Before the advent of widespread communication, and after the dispersion at the Tower of Babel, language was probably the most important barrier keeping communities of people separate from one another. Language fenced them in, as it were. Each group's community traditions and culture then developed within this framework, interacting with and influenced by their language.

Hebrew is one of the Semitic group of languages, which also includes Ugaritic, Canaan-Phoenician dialects and Aramaic (it is also closely related to Ethiopic and Arabic dialects). As we study the growth of the societies of the Semitic nations in the Middle East, we find that language and culture were closely interwoven as the people-groups developed through the centuries. Thus when we are seeking to understand the background of the Bible we need to look at both the language and culture of the people.

The language of the Bible influenced the interpretation of the Bible. Israel is closely defined by the way Torah is interpreted linguistically, and this has been so for thousands of years. This was the case through the wilderness years, at the time of the judges and in the kingdom years, and on to today. In other words, the scriptures of the Tanakh (Old Testament) were interpreted into laws and customs of the community – and so Hebrew language was related to action. Understanding the Hebrew language is therefore key to understanding both Scripture and its application.

The Hebrew language is closely interwoven with Hebrew culture, and has long influenced the interpretation of Scripture.

In the chapter 'The Power of the Word' in his book Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, (1984, Summit Books), Abba Eban says:

The Hebrews entered history suddenly, without much storm or drama. Indeed, history barely noticed that the Jews had entered it at all. Why should the powerful, sophisticated empires in the rich green valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates be impressed by those ragged, wandering tribes? They had no cities, no temples, no buildings, no armies. All that they had were ideas expressed in words.

All subsequent history bears witness to the unconquerable power of those words. A few thousand Hebrew words uttered in Israel a few thousand years ago have been sending sharp impulses of thought and feeling into mankind ever since. We cannot imagine the history of civilizations, of religion, of philosophy, literature, drama, science, art, with acknowledging the potency of those words.

The words preserved the people in their separate identity... (p31)

This is well known to those who make in-depth studies of the power of language. Some branches of the modern science of linguistics concentrate on the psychological, cultural and social effects of language, so important is the link between language and culture. Language is far more than words that convey information. It forms the framework of personality, of society and of culture, both through the nature of the language itself and the practices that are described by it. Language and culture are inseparable.

Language is far more than words that convey information. It forms the framework of personality, society and culture.

With all the implications of this, Hebrew was the chosen language of God to convey his teaching to Israel. Their whole existence, and therefore the background to Christianity, is influenced by this. We gain a workable understanding of the background of the words of Scripture through scholarly translations, but there are other depths to consider through familiarity with the language of Scripture itself.

This is an immense subject on which we can only touch briefly, so we will illustrate with a small number of examples of the specific characteristics of the Hebrew language.

The Alphabet

There are 22 consonants in the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter is a word picture. For example, the Aleph is a representation of an ox, a Bet represents a house, a Gimel represents a camel, a Dalet a door, a Heh a window and a Vav a hook. Words of the scriptures were originally formed with consonants only. The readers and writers of Scripture would have been familiar with how to say each word and so vowels were not developed until much later.

Of all the languages on earth, Hebrew was the language God chose to convey his teaching to Israel, influencing their whole existence and the background to Christianity.

As Menachem Mansoor writes in Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1 (1990, Baker):Hebrew Alphabet, see Photo Credits.

The Hebrew Bible was originally written without vowels. The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated between the second century B.C. and the first century A.D., has no vowels. When Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language, several systems of vowel signs were invented by Jewish grammarians to help the public read Hebrew accurately. Our present system was probably adopted about the ninth or tenth century A.D. and is known as the Tiberian – developed by Jewish scholars of Tiberias... (p31)

Vowels were written beneath, above and within the existing consonants, so that the original form of the words without vowels was preserved. The vowels consist of patterns of dots or lines. As Mansoor implies, oral tradition preserved the pronunciation of words, before it was considered necessary to preserve the Hebrew language in written form.

This indicates that though Scripture was written, it was also linked with oral traditions, being connected more to the doing of what was written than philosophising about it. It was primarily a spoken language. The written word was related to the spoken word, which in turn was related to lifestyle and culture.

Hebrew was primarily a spoken language, preserved through oral traditions before it was ever preserved in written form.

The Verb Structures

The verb structure of the English language and other languages is far more complex than Hebrew. There are less variations of a verb in Hebrew; generally speaking, the various tenses of a verb are formed by adding prefixes or suffixes to verb roots of three letters.

The verb is to be found at the beginning of a sentence, indicating its priority - as opposed to the priority of the noun in other languages. Hebrew is a 'doing' language, not a philosophical language. The tenses of the verb are also simple, related (in general terms) to completed, continuing or uncompleted action. If we consider the relationship of language with culture we have another clue as to the characteristic of a Hebrew speaker, who speaks in simple and straightforward ways relating to the activities of life.

In Hebrew, verbs are prioritised at the beginning of sentences. Hebrew is a 'doing' language, not a philosophical language.

Figures of Speech

EW Bullinger's book Figures of Speech in the Bible (1993, Baker) is over 1000 pages long, containing hundreds of examples drawn from the whole range of literature to be found in the Bible. Figures of speech reflect aspects of the Hebrew mind. We cannot say that every Hebrew speaker will use anything like that range of figures of speech, any more than every English person will be a literary expert at the level of William Shakespeare. But the Hebrew language nevertheless gives us some insight into the Hebrew culture and mindset.

We will take three examples for illustration: Ellipsis, Parallelism and Hyperbole.

a) Ellipsis

Ellipsis is the figure of speech in which there is an omission of some part of a sentence, which gives the sentence a special emphasis. Generally speaking, a sentence has three components: a subject, a verb and an object. Omission of any of these three is possible. Bullinger put it this way:

The omission arises not from want of thought, or lack of care, or from accident, but from design, in order that we may not stop to think of, or lay stress on, the word omitted, but may dwell on the other words which are not emphasized. For instance, in Matthew 24:19, we read that the Lord Jesus, "gave the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.

There is no sense in the latter sentence, which is incomplete, "the disciples to the multitude," because there is no verb. The verb "gave" is omitted by the figure of Ellipsis for some purpose. If we read the last sentence as it stands, it is read as though Jesus gave the disciples to the multitude!

This at once serves to arrest our attention; it causes us to note the figure employed; we observe the emphasis; we learn the intended lesson. What is it? Why, this; we are asked to dwell on the fact that the disciples gave the bread, but only instrumentally, not really. The Lord Jesus Himself was the alone Giver of that bread. Our thoughts are thus, at once, centred on Him and not on the disciples. (p1)

There are a very large number of examples of ellipses in the Bible. With a mind tuned to this aspect of Hebrew, the reader naturally draws a particular emphasis because of the omitted words. This is an aspect of Hebrew culture as well as something we should understand in the reading of Scripture.

Bullinger demonstrates that there are complex examples of ellipses as well as more simple ones. For example, he perceives a 'Complex Ellipsis' in Romans 6:4: "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father..."

He writes, "The complex Ellipsis here may be thus worked out: "Therefore we are buried with him by His baptism-unto-death (and raised again from the dead), that like as Christ was (buried and) raised again from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (p113).

b) Parallelism

Parallelism is another of the figures of speech that gives a sentence a certain emphasis. In this case it is through the repetition of similar, synonymous, or opposite thoughts or words in parallel or successive lines. Bullinger distinguishes seven kinds of parallelism, each bringing their own form of emphasis. Often this figure of speech is considered poetic, but its use is more general than that – it is simply another aspect of the Hebrew way of communication. Here are a few examples.

Psalm 1:1:

Blessed is the man
That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor standeth in the way of sinners,
Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Bullinger states: "Here we have three series of gradation:- walketh / standeth / sitteth; counsel / way / seat; ungodly / sinners / scornful. These gradations point us to the fact that there is a mine of truth contained in the verse, on which a volume might be written." (p350).

Proverbs 10:1

A wise son maketh a glad father;
But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Here the emphasis is made with a contrast in two lines opposed in sense to one another.

Proverbs 18:24:

There are friends to our own detriment:
But there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

Bullinger says: "The point of the parallel lies in the plural, "friends"...many friends in contrast with the faithfulness of one 'friend'" (p353).

These are simple examples, but the Hebrew language contains examples of growing complexity.

c) Hyperbole

This important figure of speech involves emphasis being given through exaggeration. More is said than is meant to be literally understood, in order to heighten the impact of the phrase. Here are a few of the simpler examples noted by Bullinger (pp423-428):

Genesis 2:24

'Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.' This does not mean that he is to forsake and no longer to love or care for his parents. So Matthew 19:5

Deuteronomy 1:28:

'The cities are great, and walled up to heaven,' to express their great height.

Judges 20:16:

'Every one could sling stones at an hair and not miss': to describe the wonderful proficiency which the Benjamites had attained in slinging stones.

These few, of the many examples of Hebrew figures of speech in the Bible, illustrate the character of the language in conveying ideas and forming the way of thinking of the Children of Israel, which in turn determines the character of the people and the nation as well as being a framework for our understanding of the scriptures.

The Hebrew Basis of Scripture

Apart from a few places where Aramaic was used (Dan 2:4b-7:28, Ezra 7:12-26, Gen 31:47 and Jer 10:11) the Tanakh (Old Testament) was passed down to us through the Hebrew language. It was faithfully copied from generation to generation in the scribal traditions, so that one small mistake would render the whole manuscript obsolete and require a fresh start to preserve accuracy.

Because the language used for the New Testament was Greek and because we have the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament), we have insights into the Hebraic background of the New Testament. We can compare words and phrases in the New Testament with the words and phrases of the Septuagint. However, it is always the original Hebrew that is at the root of the scriptures. The authors of the New Testament were entirely Hebrew in their outlook (and, for the most part, background) despite the fact that the message of the Gospels is recorded in Greek.

Every part of Scripture should therefore be read through the mindset of Hebrew. This is to understand both its meaning and its intent for our lives. Through faith in their Hebrew Lord, Christians join the historic community of the Hebrews and accept its Scripture, which is Hebraic in both word and deed.

In summary, then, the construction of the Hebrew language has its own characteristics which must be understood in order to discover the true meaning of Scripture. We have discussed how language and culture are related and suggested that the Hebraic culture is not one of philosophising but one of doing. The whole character of the Hebrew people, as intended by God, is linked to the study of the Hebrew language. We have also mentioned the important fact that the Greek of the New Testament should be understood through Hebrew eyes.

For Reflection and Comment

What benefits are there in reading the Greek New Testament through a Hebrew mind-set?

Next time – final in the series: Timeline and Bibliography