The Bible’s Language: What Is It Called?

The language of Canaan, שׂפת כנען, Judahite, יהודית, Hebrew, עברית, or the holy language, לשון הקודש—what name did Jews and Samaritans use?

Prof.

Abraham Tal

Prof.

Abraham Tal

Categories:

Noach

The Bible’s Language: What Is It Called?

When Joseph speaks to Pharaoh, he says that he was kidnapped from אֶרֶץ הָעִבְרִים, “the land of the Hebrews” (Gen 40:15). The daughter of Pharaoh, when she finds Moses, calls him מִיַּלְדֵי הָעִבְרִים, “a child of the Hebrews,” and Moses’s sister seeks מֵינֶקֶת מִן הָעִבְרִיֹּת, “a Hebrew nurse” to care for him (Exod 2:6–7).

The Bible, however, never calls the language in which it is written עברית (ʿIvrit), “Hebrew,” the name used later for the language. Nor are we informed what the inhabitants of the land called their language. Isaiah uses the name שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן (sefat Kenaʿan), although this may be no more than a figure of speech rather than the actual name of the language:^[1]

^{ישׁעיה יט:יח} בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיוּ חָמֵשׁ עָרִים בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מְדַבְּרוֹת שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן וְנִשְׁבָּעוֹת לַי־הוָה צְבָאוֹת....

^{Isa 19:18a} In that day, there shall be several towns in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing loyalty to YHWH of Hosts.^[2]

The emissaries of Hezekiah, king of Judah, ask Rabshakeh, the Assyrian general, to refrain from speaking יְהוּדִית (Yehudit), “Judahite,” so that the common people would not understand his demoralizing speech:

^{מלכים ב יח:כו} וַיֹּאמֶר אֶלְיָקִים בֶּן חִלְקִיָּהוּ וְשֶׁבְנָה וְיוֹאָח אֶל רַב שָׁקֵה דַּבֶּר נָא אֶל עֲבָדֶיךָ אֲרָמִית כִּי שֹׁמְעִים אֲנָחְנוּ וְאַל תְּדַבֵּר עִמָּנוּ יְהוּדִית בְּאָזְנֵי הָעָם אֲשֶׁר עַל הַחֹמָה.

^{2 Kgs 18:26} Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah replied to the Rabshakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic,^[3] for we understand it; do not speak to us in Yehudit in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

Presumably, Yehudit refers to the language of Judah alone, as the people of the northern kingdom of Israel would have had an aversion to such a name for their own language. Nevertheless, the dialects of the two kingdoms were probably similar, as Amos, the Judahite prophet, found no difficulty in making speeches in Samaria, the capital city of Israel (Amos 1:1).^[4]

In the post-exilic period, Nehemiah complains about the mixed marriages of many Judahites, and that children of these unions do not know Yehudit:

^{נחמיה יג:כד} וּבְנֵיהֶם חֲצִי מְדַבֵּר אַשְׁדּוֹדִית וְאֵינָם מַכִּירִים לְדַבֵּר יְהוּדִית וְכִלְשׁוֹן עַם וָעָם.

^{Neh 13:24} A good number of their children spoke the language of Ashdod and the language of those various peoples, and did not know how to speak Yehudit.^[5]

Here, Yehudit is the name he uses for the language spoken in the territory under his rule, namely the Persian province of Yehud (Judah). Again, this name would not likely have been by the people in the territory of Samaria at that time (Neh 2:10–19, etc.).

It is only in post-biblical period, i.e., after the events described in the Bible, that the name “Hebrew” is used for the language spoken within the boundaries of the land of Israel. (This does not imply, however, that the name did not exist before this period.)

Hebrew in the Second Century B.C.E.

The first echo of the name “Hebrew” is embedded into the preface of the Greek book of Ben-Sira (2^nd cent. B.C.E.), where the author’s grandson, who made the translation, complains about the difficulties in rendering Ebraisti, “Hebrew,” into Greek:^[6]

^{Sir 0:15} You are invited, therefore, ^0:16 with goodwill and attention ^0:17 to read it ^0:18 and to be indulgent ^0:19 in cases where we may seem ^0:20 to have rendered some phrases imperfectly, despite our diligent labor in translating. ^0:22 For it does not have exactly the same effect, ^0:22 what was originally said in Hebrew [ἑβραϊστί], when translated into another language.^[7]

In addition, the contemporary Letter of Aristeas speaks about the king’s desire to have the Law translated from Hebrew into Greek:

^{Aristeas § 38} Now since I am anxious to show my gratitude to these men and to the Jews throughout the world and to the generations yet to come, I have determined that your law shall be translated from the Hebrew tongue which is in use amongst you into the Greek language, that these books may be added to the other royal books in my library.^[8]

Finally, the book of Jubilees (2^nd cent. B.C.E.) reports about God’s speech to Moses, saying that He taught Abraham “the Hebrew language” (12:26–27).^[9]

References to the Hebrew language also occur in many somewhat later literary pieces composed in the Roman periods, such as Philo’s (early 1^st cent. C.E.) references to the Ebraios glossa, “Hebrew language,” in his De Sobrietate § 45 and De Confusione Linguarum § 68.^[10] Josephus’ (1^st cent. C.E.) account of Rabshakeh, mentioned above, describes him as speaking in Hebrew, not Yehudit:

^Ant.^10:8 As Rapsakēs spoke these words in Hebrew, because he mastered this language, Eliakias was afraid that the people might overhear them and be thrown into consternation, and so asked him to speak in Aramaic.^[11]

References to the Hebrew language occur in many other places as well, such as the Gospel according to John:

^{John 19:13} When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha.^[12]

Paul addresses a crowd in Jerusalem in the Hebrew language:

^{Acts 22:2} When they heard him addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet.^[13]

Hebrew in Rabbinic Texts

The name עברית (ʿIvrit) and its variant עברי (ʿIvri) for Hebrew associated with speech is not widespread in the Tannaitic and Amoraic literature. I found only 41 occurrences in the older rabbinic sources from the beginning of the Common Era to the end of the seventh century, many of which are mere repetitions—passages quoted or re-written from older sources.^[14]

ʿIvrit as a language appears mainly in precepts referring to writing of deeds, contracts, and even scrolls. For example, in the Mishnah:

^{משנה גיטין ט:ח} גֵּט שֶׁכְּתָבוֹ עִבְרִית וְעֵדָיו יְוָנִים

^{m. Gittin 9:8} a writ of divorce written [in] Hebrew with its witnesses [signing in] Greek (quoted in y. Gittin 50c; b. Gittin 19b; 87b).^[15]

Likewise in the Tosefta:

^{תוספתא בבא בתרא יא:ח} משנין את השטר מעברית ליוונית.

^{t. Bava Batra 11:8} A deed may be changed [from] Hebrew to Greek.^[16]

The Talmud enumerates Torah writings for which one is permitted to desecrate Shabbat in order to save them from fire:

^{בבלי שבת קטו.} הָיוּ כְּתוּבִין גִּיפְטִית מָדִית עִיבְרִית עֵילָמִית יְוָונִית... מַצִּילִין אוֹתָן מִפְּנֵי הַדְּלֵיקָה.

^{b. Shabbat 115a} If they are written [in] Egyptian, Median, Hebrew, Elamitic, or Greek..., they may be saved from a fire.^[17]

Rarely is ʿIvrit used in context of speech. Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael (3^rd cent. C.E.) claims that one of the factors that led to the liberation of the Children of Israel from Egypt was the fact that they never abandoned their language and continued to speak Hebrew in the Egyptian environment:

^{מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל, פסחא, פרשה ה} ומנין שלא חלפו לשונם שנ' מי שמך לאיש שר ושפט. מכן שהיו מדברים עברית.

^{Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Pischa 5} Wherefrom (do we know) that they did not change their language? It is written: “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?” (Ex. 2:14); Therefrom that they were speaking Hebrew.^[18]

Sifre Devarim (3^rd cent C.E.) says:

^{ספרי דברים שמג} יי מסיני בא זה לשון עברי.

^{Sifre Devarim §343} The Lord came from Sinai (Deut 33:2)—this is [in the] Hebrew language.^[19]

In the Jerusalem Talmud, R. Jonathan of Bet Guvrin, attributing functions to the four important languages of his time, reserves Hebrew for speech:

^{תלמוד ירושלמי מגילה א:ט, עא:} ארבעה לשונות נאים שישתמש בהן העולם ואילו הן לעז לזמר רומי לקרב סורסי לאילייא עברי לדיבור.

^{y. Megillah 1:9, 71b} Four languages are suitable for the world to use them. They are: Laaz (= Greek) for song, Roman for battle, Syriac for elegy, Hebrew for speech.

Notwithstanding its importance in the eyes of the rabbis, the term ʿIvrit remains infrequent in their literature.

The Holy Language in Rabbinic Texts

More frequent is the appellation לשון הקודש (leshon haqqodesh), “holy language,”^[20] which occurs around 80 times in the same period (1^st – 7^th cent. C.E.) in rabbinic literature. It is far more widely used than ʿIvrit, perhaps because of its appreciative connotation. Its origin likely lies in its attribution to the language in which the Bible is transmitted, wherefrom it spread to become the nickname for Hebrew in general.^[21]

The oldest Tannaitic document, the Mishnah, specifies that certain formulae are pronounced in leshon haqqodesh. For example, the rite of the חֲלִיצָה, the ritual in which the shoe of the yevam who refuses levirate marriage was removed (Deut 25:7–10), was performed in “the holy language”:

^{משנה יבמות יב:ו} וְהִיא אוֹמֶרֶת: (דברים כה,ז) "מֵאֵן יְבָמִי לְהָקִים לְאָחִיו שֵׁם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, לֹא אָבָה יַבְּמִי". וְהוּא אוֹמֵר: (דברים כה,ח) "לֹא חָפַצְתִּי לְקַחְתָּהּ". בִּלְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ.

^{m. Yevamot 12:6} And she says: “My levir refuses to establish a name in Israel for his brother; he will not perform the duty of levir” (Deut 25:7), and he says: “I do not want to marry her” (25:8). And they say these in the holy tongue.^[22]

Leshon haqqodesh is used not only to qualify quotations from the Bible or other formulae, but also to designate spoken Hebrew. For example:

^{ספרי דברים מו} כשהתינוק מתחיל לדבר אביו מדבר עמו בלשון הקודש.

^{Sifre Devarim §46} When a child begins to speak, his father should speak to him in the holy language.^[23]

R. Meir in the same composition says:

^{ספרי דברים שלג} כל הדר בארץ ישראל וקורא קרית שמע שחרית וערבית ומדבר בלשון הקדש האי הוא בן העולם הבא

^{Sifre Devarim §333} Anyone who lives in the Land of Israel, and recites the creed (שמע ישראל) morning and evening and speaks the holy language, will inherit the world to come.^[24]

The Oldest Reference to the Holy Language

The oldest record of the term leshon haqqodesh, and the first known reference in a non-rabbinic source, came to light in a fragment discovered in the fourth cave in Qumran (4Q464).^[25] A segment of the document says:

7 [...] עד עולם כיא הואה
8 [...]רא לשון הקודש
9 [...כי אז אהפך] אל עמים שפה ברורה

This last line is a quote from Zephaniah:

^{צפניה ג:ט} כִּי אָז אֶהְפֹּךְ אֶל עַמִּים שָׂפָה בְרוּרָה לִקְרֹא כֻלָּם בְּשֵׁם יְ־הוָה לְעָבְדוֹ שְׁכֶם אֶחָד.

^{Zeph 3:9} At that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a chosen language, that all of them may call on the name of YHWH and serve him with one accord.”^[26]

Esther Eshel and Michael E. Stone thus inferred that the Qumran fragment belongs to the eschatological genre, and that lines 7 and 8 mean that at the “end of the days” people will speak the “holy language.”

Hebrew, the Primeval Language

The belief that Hebrew was the primeval language with which God created the world was quite popular in Jewish circles from time immemorial. The midrash Genesis Rabbah states:

^{בראשית רבה יח:ד} שֶׁנִּתְּנָה תּוֹרָה בְּלָשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ כָּךְ נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם בְּלָשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ

^{Gen. Rab. 18:4} Inasmuch as the Torah was given in the holy language, so the world was created in the holy language.^[27]

The medieval Midrash collection Tanhuma maintains that Hebrew was the language that God “confused” at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11) because of human arrogance:

^{תנחומא (בובר), נח יט} שערבב הקב״ה את לשונם... מה היה אותו הלשון שהיו מדברים בו לשון הקודש היה שבו נברא בעולם.

^{Tanhuma (Buber), Noah 19} That God confused their language and nobody understood his fellow’s language. What was that language that they were speaking? It was the holy language, in which the world was created...

In addition, in the world to come, as prophesied in Zephaniah, Hebrew will regain its status as the universal language:

^{תנחומא (בובר), נח יט} לעולם הבא כולן שוין כתף אחד לעבדו שנאמר כי אז אהפך וגומר.

^{Tanhuma (Buber), Noah 19} In the world to come all [creatures] will equally worship Him, for it is said: “At that time I will change [the speech of the peoples to a chosen language], etc.” (Zeph 3:9).^[28]

Hebrew in Samaritan Texts

Notwithstanding their long-lasting rivalry, Samaritans and Jews have not only common traditions, but some traces of common hopes and even common terminology. For example, a Samaritan poem for the Day of Atonement by the priest אבישע [Abiša] exhibits a remarkably similar eschatology to that of Tanhuma. Going one step further, however, Abiša claims that the Arabic language will be confused and Hebrew will be the language of the Last Days:[29]

וישכן ישראל בטח האמן מן יראתו

Israel will dwell in safety (Deut 38:28), the steadfast in its faith,

ויעבד מועדיו בשלם ויקריב קרבנותו

And he will keep the feasts in peace and make his offerings,

והשמחות תתחדש וכל העמים יכפתו

And joy will be renewed, and all the nations will be subdued,

ויבלל לשן הערבים ויתגלי לשן עבראותו^[30]

And the language of the Arabs will be confused and the Hebrew language will be revealed [= reinstated].

The environment in which the Samaritans lived and in which their renaissance took place in the 14th century was Arabic-speaking. The Samaritan community itself spoke and wrote in Arabic as well. Abiša knows that this situation is not going to change in the near future. He expresses his longing for the end of the days, when Hebrew will regain its status of universal language, as it was in the days before the Tower of Babylon, when humanity became multilingual.^[31]

The re-birth of Hebrew is for Abiša the hallmark of a global process of the nations’^[32] admittance of the true faith:

והגוים והערלים כל מנון יימר לעדתו

And the nations and the uncircumcised, each one of them will say to its community:

כל מה אנן בו שקר וזה הו הקשט דתו

“Everything in which we are is untrue, and this is the true faith.

קומו בנו (!?) נלך אליו ונבוא תחת צל קורתו

Arise, let us go to it and come under the shelter of its roof” (Gen 19:8).

וייתו ויאמנו בו ובמשה ותורתו

And they will come and believe in Moses and his law.

Needless to say, Jews are not going to evade the universal conversion to Samaritanism. They too will acknowledge their error and abandon their law, given to them by Ezra, the father of the Jewish heresy:

היהודהים (!) יימרו זה נבוא בדתו

And the Jews will say: “Let us join this faith;

ארור עזרה ודבריו דכתב בבישאתו

Cursed be Ezra and his words, which he has written in his evilness.”^[33]

Holy Language in Samaritan Texts

The Samaritans also employed the phrase לשון הקדש (leshon haqqodesh), often as an introductory formula for a Torah quotation or reference. For example, in a hymn composed by the 10th century poet טביה בן יצחק [Tabya ban Yeʾṣåq] for the first day of the month of Nissan (if it falls on a Sabbath), leshon haqqodesh introduces a quotation from the Song of the Sea:

ואדם בצלם והדמה יאמר בלשן הקדש

And man in the image and likeness says in the holy language:

מי כמוך באלים יהוה מי כמוך נאדרי בקדש

“Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness?” (Exod 15:11).^[34]

However, the phrase leshon haqqodesh is not reserved exclusively for quotations from the Torah or for eschatological visions. In a poem written by Yusef, the great grandfather of Marḥib,^[35] it designates the late medieval Neo-Samaritan Hebrew:

פממי אטהר ולשני אקדש

Let me purify my mouth and purge my tongue,

וארנן ואתפחר בלשן הקדש

And sing and glorify in the holy language,

למן נורו נהיר דלערפלה נגש

The one who his light is kindling, who approached the darkness (Exod 20:21),

דזרח משעיר ודרס לגו אש

Who dawned from Seʿir (Deut 33:2) and trod on the fire (refers to Exod 3:3–6).^[36]

Thus, though the names Hebrew language and holy language did not emerge until the post-biblical period, Jews and Samaritans both adopted these terms, adapting them to their traditions and to the needs of their communities.

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Footnotes

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Published

October 21, 2025

Last Updated

November 29, 2025

[1] This did not deter Ibn Ezra from claiming (ad loc.): מזה נלמוד כי הכנענים בלשון הקדש היו מדברים, “from this we learn that the Canaanites used to speak in the holy language.”

[2] Unless otherwise indicated, biblical translations follow NJPS, with modifications, and all other translations are mine.

[3] Aramaic (ארמית) is also mentioned in Daniel 2:4 and Ezra 4:7.

[4] Editor’s note: On Amos lineage and dialect, see Tania Notarius, “Amos’ Puns in the Northern (Israelite) Dialect,” TheTorah (2016).

[5] Ashdodite (אשדודית), the language he opposes to Yehudit , is apparently a derogative name for the language spoken by these offspring of the unwanted foreign wives. It is difficult to ascertain the meaning of the followingוכלשון עם ועם , “and the language of various peoples.” The Septuagint ignores the entire expression, while the Vulgate associates it with Ashdodite, as other spoken languages, with a preceding insertion loquebatur, in order to clarify matters.

[6] The discovery of the Ben Sira fragments in the Cairo Geniza generated an ardent dispute over the question whether they represent the original that underlies the Greek translation or not. Their striking resemblance to the fragments from Masada resolved the issue, proving that the text was originally written in Hebrew. See A. Hurwitz, “The Linguistic Status of Ben Sira as a Link between Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew: Lexicographical Aspects,” in The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls & Ben Sira, ed. Takamitsu Muraoka and John. F. Elwolde (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 72–73. For a detailed discussion of the translator’s use of the term ἑβραϊστί, and the distinction between Hebrew and Aramaic at its time, see Stefan Schorch, “The Pre-eminence of the Hebrew Language and the Emerging Concept of the ‘Ideal Text’ in Late Second Temple Judaism,” in Studies in the Book of Ben Sira: Papers of the Third International Conference on the Deuterocanonical Books, Shime’on Centre, Pápa, Hungary, 18–20 May 2006, ed. Géza G. Xeravits and József Zsengellér, JSJSupp 127, (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 43–54.

[7] ^{Sir. 0:15} Παρακέκλησθε οὖν ^0:16 μετ̓ εὐνοίας καὶ προσοχῆς ^0:17 τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν ποιεῖσθαι ^0:18 καὶ συγγνώμην ἔχειν ^0:19 ἐφ̓ οἷς ἂν δοκῶμεν ^0:20 τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν πεφιλοπονημένων τισὶν τῶν λέξεων ἀδυναμεῖν· ^0:21 οὐ γὰρ ἰσοδυναμεῖ ^0:22 αὐτὰ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς Εβραϊστὶ λεγόμενα καὶ ὅταν μεταχθῇ εἰς ἑτέραν γλῶσσαν· Translation follows NRSVue, with modifications.

[8] ^{Aristeas § 38} βουλομένων δ᾽ ἡμῶν καὶ τούτοις χαρίζεσθαι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην Ἰουδαίοις καὶ τοῖς μετέπειτα, προῃρήμεθα τὸν νόμον ὑμῶν μεθερμηνευθῆναι γράμμασιν Ἑλληνικοῖς ἐκ τῶν παρ᾽ ὑμῶν λεγομένων Ἑβραϊκῶν γραμμάτων, ἵν᾽ ὑπάρχῃ καὶ ταῦτα παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐν βιβλιοθήκῃ σὺν τοῖς ἄλλοις βασιλικοῖς βιβλίοις. Translation follows Letter of Aristeas (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1913).

[9] τὴν ἑβραΐδα γλῶσσαν. This follows the Greek version quoted by Syncellus. See Georgius Syncellus and Niceforus Constantinopolitanus, Georgius Syncellus et Niceforus, ex recensione Guilielmi Dindorfii, Vol. I (Bonn 1829), 185. The Ethiopian version is somewhat different but mentions Hebrew too. An indirect testimony is provided by the medieval ספר הזכרונות by Yerahmiel b. Shelomo. In a chapter largely dependent on the Testament of Naphtali, the division of the languages is narrated, mentioning that after the Tower of Babylon affair, God sent the angels to teach the seventy nations seventy languages, while לשון עבריremained for Shem and Eber and Abraham their descendant. See Eli Yassif, ed., The Book of Memory that is The Chronicles of Jerahme'el: A Critical Edition (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2001), 146. To be sure, this segment does not exist in the Greek version of the Testament of Naphtali.

[10] ἑβραῖωϛ γλῶσσα. Philo, vol. III, LCL (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940), 466; ibid., vol. IV, 47, respectively. His testimony is somewhat blurred by his statement made in De Vita Mosis 2:26–27 that the Torah was originally written “in Chaldean” (γλώσσῃ χαλδαϊκῇ) before being translated into Greek, ibid., vol. VI, 1935, 460, 462. For a detailed study of Philo’s use of the term Chaldean when referring to Hebrew, see C. K. Wong, “Philo’s use of Chaldaioi,” The Studia Philonica Annual 4 (1992): 1–14. The interpretation of ἑβραϊστί is the subject of an endless dispute. Assuming that Hebrew was no longer in colloquial use after the Exile, many scholars took it as expressing Aramaic. Place names ending in a in the Gospels, such as Γολγοθα, Γαββαθα, Βεθζαθα (John 5:2; 19:13,17 respectively) apparently support this view, since the ending a allegedly represents the final Aramaic article. Mary Magdalene's “Aramaic” exclamation ραββουνι, “my Master,” at the sight of Jesus (John 20:16), etc., as well as similar “quotations” of direct speech, have been put forward in favor of this thesis. This argumentation, however, has been refuted by many scholars. For example, the vocalization רבון in Hebrew documents is discussed by Hanokh Yalon, “Reasons for Mishnah vocalization,” Leshonenu 24 (1960): 157–166 (p. 162), and Naphtali Wieder, “The Form Rabbun in Hebrew Sources,” Leshonenu 27–28 (1963–64): 214–217 (both in Hebrew). Such is also the imperative ἐφφαθά, “be opened” in Mark 7:34, which gave rise to a long dispute over its nature between John A. Emerton, “Did Jesus speak Hebrew?,” JThS 12 (1961): 189–202 and Isaak Rabinowitz, “Ephphata,” ZNW 53 (1962): 229–238. The argument continued in the seventies and was examined by S. Morag, “ἐφφαθά (Mark VII.34): Certainly Hebrew, not Aramaic?,” JSS 17 (1972): 198–202. As the matter is far beyond the scope of this article, I direct the reader to the learned account given by Ken Penner, “What Language. did Paul speak in Acts 21–22? Ancient Names for Hebrew and Aramaic?, Paper delivered at the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies Annual Meeting, 30 May 2003. See also John C. Poirier, “The Narrative Role of Semitic Languages in the Book of Acts,” Filologia Neotestamentaria 16 (2003): 107–116.

[11] ^Ant.^10:8 ταῦτα δὲ τὸν Ῥαψάκην ἑβραϊστὶ λέγοντα, τῆς γὰρ γλώττης εἶχεν ἐμπείρως, ὁ Ἐλιακίας, φοβούμενος μὴ τὸ πλῆθος ἐπακοῦσαν εἰς ταραχὴν ἐμπέσῃ, συριστὶ φράζειν ἠξίου. Text and translation follow Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, Vol. I: Books 1–3, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray, LCL 242 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930), 160–161. Josephus also recounts a report of Nehemiah hearing two people speaking Hebrew to each other (Ant. 11:159).

[12] ^{John 19:13} Ὁ οὖν Πιλᾶτος ἀκούσας ⸂τῶν λόγων τούτων⸃ ἤγαγεν ἔξω τὸν Ἰησοῦν, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ⸀ἐπὶ βήματος εἰς τόπον λεγόμενον Λιθόστρωτον, Ἑβραϊστὶ δὲ Γαββαθα. New Testament texts follow SBLGNT. Translations follow NRSVue.

[13] ^{Acts 22:2} Ἀκούσαντες δὲ ὅτι τῇ Ἑβραΐδι διαλέκτῳ προσεφώνει αὐτοῖς μᾶλλ ον παρέσχον ἡσυχίαν. (cf. 21:40).

[14] I conducted my search in Maagarim, the database for the Historical Dictionary Project that is maintained by the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

[15] See also:

^{משנה ידים ד:ה} תֶּרְגּוּם שֶׁכְּתָבוֹ עִבְרִית

^{m. Yadayim 4:5} a Targum written [in] Hebrew

Texts from the Mishnah follow the Kaufmann MS.

[16] See also:

^{תוספתא מגילה ב:ה} מגילה כתובה עברית

^{t. Megillah 2:5} a scroll written [in] Hebrew (quoted in y. Megillah 74d)

Texts from AlHaTorah.

[17] Text from AlHaTorah.

[18] Mechilta d’Rabbi Ismael, cum variis Lectionibus et Adnotationibus, ed. H. Saul Horovitz and Israel A. Rabin (Frankfurt am Main: J. Kauffmann, 1931), 15. This aggadah is repeated again and again in various later compositions.

[19] Finkelstein, Siphre, 395.

[20] The form לשון הקודש is a construct chain, putting the two terms into a dependent, or genitival, relationship. Thus, the phrase might also be rendered “the language of holiness.”

[21] The Aramaic correspondent occurs once in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: בלישׁן קודשׁה הוו ממללין דאיתבריא ביה עלמא מן שׁירויא, “they were speaking in the holy language, in which the world was created from the beginning” (Gen 11:1). This is an Aramaic adaptation of a midrash about the primeval language, related to the Tower of Babylon. E.g., Tanhuma: שהלשון הראשון היו מדברים בלשון הקודש ובו בלשון נברא העולם, “that the first language that they (i.e., the builders of the tower) spoke was the holy language, in which the world was created” (editio princeps, Constantinople 1523). The matter is treated by Milka Rubin, “The Language of the Creation or the Primordial Language: A Case of Cultural Polemics in Antiquity,” JSS 49 (1998): 306–333. The amplified expression לישן בית קודשא occurs elsewhere in the Palestinian Targum in all its versions. The various opinions about its origin and meaning are detailed in Avigdor Shinan, The Embroidered Targum: The Aggadah in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992), 113–115 (Hebrew). The author believes that, as far as the Targum is concerned, לישן בית קודשא is the prototype ofלישן קודשא . See Esther Eshel and Michael E. Stone, “The Holy Language at the End of the Days in Light of a New Fragment Found at Qumran,” Tarbiz 62 (1993): 169–177 (Hebrew).

[22] Cf. Mishnah Sotah 7:4. English translation follows Tal Ilan in The Oxford Annotated Mishnah, ed. Shaye J. D. Cohen, Robert Goldenberg, and Hayim Lapin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 2.58.

[23] Finkelstein, Siphre, 104.

[24] Finkelstein, Siphre, 383. The opposite of לשון הקודש in Talmud Yerushalmi is לשון הדיוט, the language of commoners. E.g., y. Sanhedrin 7:10, defines the difference betweenמסית , “one who instigates (to idolatry),” and מדיח, “one who leads astray,” in terms of the languages they use for preaching, according to their audience: מסית אומר בלשון הקודש ומדיח אומר בלשון הדיוט, “a מסית is one who speaks in the holy language, and a מדיח in the language of commoners” (referring to Sanhedrin 7:10). The Talmud Bavli exhibits the dichotomy between לשון קודש and לשון חול, “secular language”: דברים של חול מותר לאומרן בלשון קודש של קודש אסור לאומרן בלשון חול, “Secular matters may be uttered in the holy language, whereas sacred matters must not be uttered in secular language” (b. Shabbat 40b).

[25] Esther Eshel and Michael E. Stone, “An Exposition on the Patriarchs (4Q464) and Two Other Documents (4Q464a and 4Q464b),” Le Muséon 105 (1992): 243–264. See also Eshel and Stone, “The Holy Language at the End of the Days in Light of a New Fragment Found at Qumran.”

[26] There is a wide consensus among modern translations of this passage: “At that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord” (RSV, NRSV, JPS, etc). Yet, the root ב.ר.ר bears the meaning “choice,” especially in the book of Chronicles, see BDB, s.v.ברר -I. Thus, I interpret שפה ברורה as the “chosen language.”

This is how Targum Jonathan to the Prophets renders the verse:

^{תרגום יונתן, צפניה ג:ט} ארי בכין אשני על עממיא ממלל חד בחיר לצלאה כולהון בשמא דיוי למפלח קדמוהי כתף חד.

^{Targ. Jon., Zeph 3:9} For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a selected speech, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.

Jerome translates the verse in similar terms, and so does the Peshitta. The root ב.ר.ר in the Second Commonwealth period bears the sense of “choosing.” Thus, for example, the Chronicler refers to chosen people as הַבְּרוּרִים אֲשֶׁר נִקְּבוּ בְּשֵׁמוֹת, “the chosen ones that have been designated by names” (1 Chr 16:41), using the language of Num 1:17: אשר נקבו בשמות, “designated by names.” Similarly, the Damascus Covenant mentions: וזה סרך לשפטי העדה עד עשרה אנשים ברורים מן העדה, “this is the rule for the judges of the community, they shall be ten men in all chosen from the community” (10:4–5), and the Temple Scroll states: וכל הברורים אשר יבור יהיו אנשי אמת יראי אלהים, “and all the chosen whom he has selected shall be men of truth, God fearing” (57:7–8). The Mishna too uses the verb in the sense of “choice,” e.g., איזו היא דרך ישרה שיבור לו אדם, “what is the straight way that a person should choose for himself” (m. Avot 2:1); הכהן בורר לו את היפה, “the priest selects the better of them for himself” (m. Bekh. 2:6).

[27] This is a homily on לְזֹאת יִקָּרֵא אִשָּׁה כִּי מֵאִישׁ לֻקֳחָה זֹּאת, “she shall be called woman, for from man was she taken” (Gen 2:23). In order to prove the primordiality of Hebrew it resorts to the popular etymology connecting אִשָּׁה with אִישׁ, which in fact belong to different roots. Julius Theodor and Chanoch Albeck, eds., Midrash Bereshit Rabba: Critical Edition with Notes and Commentary (Jerusalem: Wahrmann Books, 1965), 164 (reprint).

[28] Salomon Buber, ed., Midrash Tanchuma (Rome: Vilna, 1885), 56 (Hebrew). For the occurrence of a similar homily in early medieval liturgical poetry, see the evidence provided by Eshel and Stone, “An Exposition on the Patriarchs (4Q464) and Two Other Documents (4Q464a and 4Q464b)”; and Eshel and Stone, “The Holy Language at the End of the Days in Light of a New Fragment Found at Qumran.”

[29] Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy, 513. For a description of the personality of the Ta'eb, the Samaritan redeemer, and his role in “the end of the days,” see Ferdinand Dexinger, Der Taheb, ein “messianischer” Heilsbringer der Samaritaner (Salzburg: O. Miller, 1986). In the poem, Abiša makes a survey, starting with the Creation, continuing with the principal events in the course of human history and ending with the Ta‘eb, the Redeemer, who will bring the “Day of Revenge and Recompense.”

[30] The expression לשון עבראותה (lishon ʿivraʾuta), “Hebrew language,” is an aramaizing form of לשון העברי.

[31] He gives voice to his feelings regarding the deplorable state of the Samaritans under Arab rule in a rather blunt way using the verb בלל, which calls up an association with the wicked generation of the Tower of Babylon. This generation, hostilely named מגדלאי, “the people of the Tower,” is harshly condemned in Samaritan sources. See for example Zeev Ben-Hayyim, תיבת מרקה: Collection of Samaritan Midrashim (Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1988), Book IV, §64 (Hebrew).

[32] The גוים, “nations,“ probably refers to the circumcised Arabs, as opposed to the following term, ערלים, referring to uncircumcised Christians.

[33] According to the Samaritans, the Jewish Torah was written by Ezra, not by Moses under divine inspiration.

[34] Arthur E. Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy, vols. I–II (Oxford: Clarendon, 1909), 132–133. Another poem composed for similar circumstances by the 14th century priest יוסף הרבן [Yūsǝf aråbbån] does not quote the Song of the Sea explicitly, but rather refers to it:

מועד הפסח מה טבו דו למועדים ארש

How good is the feast of Pesach, for it is the foundation of all the feasts:

שבת ומועד ופסח ומיכל קרבן צלי אש

Shabbat and the Passover feast and the eating of the offering, roasted over the fire,

על מצות ומרורים יאכלהו בשמח וברגש

With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it (Exod 12:8), in joy and excitement.

ויקום כל איש ויפתח פמו בלשן הקדש

And every man raises and opens his mouth in the Holy Language,

ויחתם שירתה במימר תנים יומה אה עם קדש

And finishes the Song (of the Sea) saying: “O, that you repeat the day, O Holy people.”

Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy, 135. The common formula of blessing is תנים יומה מאה שנה, “O that you repeat the day hundred years.” See Zeev Ben-Hayyim, “Samaritan Poems for Joyous Occasions,” Tarbiz 10 (1939): 353–360 (Hebrew).

[35] According to the genealogical data given in Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy, XLVIII.

[36] Published by Ben-Hayyim, “Samaritan Poems for Joyous Occasions.” In a similar environment, Saʿd Alla ban Ṣadaqa, the 14th century poet, in a poem dedicated to a groom at his wedding, employs the term לשון עברי to describe the language used to praise Moses:

כלנו נקרי שלום אנה ובכל מקום דאנן בו נשרי

Let all of us declare: “Peace here and wherever we are dwelling,

טובינן טובינן כל ימי חיינן אן נגלג פממינן

Happy we are, happy we are all the days of our lives if we praise with our mouths,

ונימר בלשן העברי גלגי זה הגבר

And say in the Hebrew language the praises of this man (Exod 32:1),

הגביר הרם לית כמו בבשר דו משה גבירי

The elevated noble man, like whom there is none in mankind, Moses my master.”

Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy, 825. For אנה as the adverbial particle of place see Moshe Florentin, Late Samaritan Hebrew: A Linguistic Analysis of Its Different Types (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 256–257; Abraham Tal, A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 211.

[2] Unless otherwise indicated, biblical translations follow NJPS, with modifications, and all other translations are mine.

[3] Aramaic (ארמית) is also mentioned in Daniel 2:4 and Ezra 4:7.

[4] Editor’s note: On Amos lineage and dialect, see Tania Notarius, “Amos’ Puns in the Northern (Israelite) Dialect,” TheTorah (2016).

[13] ^{Acts 22:2} Ἀκούσαντες δὲ ὅτι τῇ Ἑβραΐδι διαλέκτῳ προσεφώνει αὐτοῖς μᾶλλ ον παρέσχον ἡσυχίαν. (cf. 21:40).

[14] I conducted my search in Maagarim, the database for the Historical Dictionary Project that is maintained by the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

[15] See also:

^{משנה ידים ד:ה} תֶּרְגּוּם שֶׁכְּתָבוֹ עִבְרִית

^{m. Yadayim 4:5} a Targum written [in] Hebrew

Texts from the Mishnah follow the Kaufmann MS.

[16] See also:

^{תוספתא מגילה ב:ה} מגילה כתובה עברית

^{t. Megillah 2:5} a scroll written [in] Hebrew (quoted in y. Megillah 74d)

Texts from AlHaTorah.

[17] Text from AlHaTorah.

[19] Finkelstein, Siphre, 395.

[20] The form לשון הקודש is a construct chain, putting the two terms into a dependent, or genitival, relationship. Thus, the phrase might also be rendered “the language of holiness.”

[23] Finkelstein, Siphre, 104.

This is how Targum Jonathan to the Prophets renders the verse:

^{תרגום יונתן, צפניה ג:ט} ארי בכין אשני על עממיא ממלל חד בחיר לצלאה כולהון בשמא דיוי למפלח קדמוהי כתף חד.

^{Targ. Jon., Zeph 3:9} For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a selected speech, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.

[30] The expression לשון עבראותה (lishon ʿivraʾuta), “Hebrew language,” is an aramaizing form of לשון העברי.

[32] The גוים, “nations,“ probably refers to the circumcised Arabs, as opposed to the following term, ערלים, referring to uncircumcised Christians.

[33] According to the Samaritans, the Jewish Torah was written by Ezra, not by Moses under divine inspiration.

מועד הפסח מה טבו דו למועדים ארש

How good is the feast of Pesach, for it is the foundation of all the feasts:

שבת ומועד ופסח ומיכל קרבן צלי אש

Shabbat and the Passover feast and the eating of the offering, roasted over the fire,

על מצות ומרורים יאכלהו בשמח וברגש

With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it (Exod 12:8), in joy and excitement.

ויקום כל איש ויפתח פמו בלשן הקדש

And every man raises and opens his mouth in the Holy Language,

ויחתם שירתה במימר תנים יומה אה עם קדש

And finishes the Song (of the Sea) saying: “O, that you repeat the day, O Holy people.”

[35] According to the genealogical data given in Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy, XLVIII.

כלנו נקרי שלום אנה ובכל מקום דאנן בו נשרי

Let all of us declare: “Peace here and wherever we are dwelling,

טובינן טובינן כל ימי חיינן אן נגלג פממינן

Happy we are, happy we are all the days of our lives if we praise with our mouths,

ונימר בלשן העברי גלגי זה הגבר

And say in the Hebrew language the praises of this man (Exod 32:1),

הגביר הרם לית כמו בבשר דו משה גבירי

The elevated noble man, like whom there is none in mankind, Moses my master.”

Prof. Abraham Tal is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Linguistics of Tel Aviv University, formerly the vice-president of the Academy of Hebrew Language and editor-in-chief of the Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language. He holds a PhD from Hebrew University. Among his major publications are A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (Brill, 2000), The Pentateuch – The Samaritan Version (with Moshe Florentin, TAU University Press, 2010), Tibat Marqe – Edition, Translation, Commentary (Studia Samaritana, de Gruyter, 2019), and Samaritan Aramaic (Ugarit Verlag, 2013).

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