Biblical Hebrew a foreign language?

Read the review of the research on the Ynet site here

Research: Language of the Bible is “alien” and incomprehensible for pupils

Researchers call for a change in the system of teaching the Bible, which must begin with interpreting the language. “The ancient language and “Israeli” Hebrew are completely different,” they argue, “a fact that leads to alienation and failure in exams”.

Israeli pupils perceive Biblical Hebrew as a foreign language. This is what new research that will be published next week argues. As a result, they develop a sense of alienation with regard to the Bible study and do not succeed in the examinations. “There is a need to fundamentally change the approach and to start to teach the Bible like one might teach a foreign language like English or Arabic,” the researchers claim.

According to the researchers, the teaching of Bible in Israel is based upon the assumption that the ancient language is the same as “Israeli” Hebrew, when in fact these are two alien languages that use the same alphabet. “Israeli Hebrew is a hybrid of Hebrew, Yiddish and other languages and it is the mother tongue of native born Israelis, distinct from classical Hebrew in its vocabulary, syntax, tenses, semantics and phonetics. They should be perceived as different languages,” explained linguists Prof. Ghil'ad Zuckermann and Dr. Gitit Holzman.

This research – due to be published next week in the review “Gilui Daat”, issued by the Academic College for Education of the Seminar of Kibbutzim – argues that “the supposition that Israeli pupils can read the Bible with no difficulty is a crude generalization which is basically erroneous because, in fact, most of them are not fluent in its language and have difficulty understanding its vocabulary.”

According to the researchers, as distinct from Greek, which was spoken continuously from the classical period until contemporary times, Hebrew was not a spoken language for more than 1700 years, and therefore it is not possible to view its revival as a direct continuity with the Biblical language. In a conversation with Ynet, Prof. Zuckermann explained that “in many cases, Israeli pupils assume that they understand the Bible but in fact their interpretation is narrow, limited and mistaken.”

As an example of the difficulty mentioned in the research, examples are given. In Jeremiah 31:20, the expression “darling child” would be translated by most Israelis as “playboy” and not in the way the Bible intends. Likewise, the expression “children about to be born” (2 Kings 19:3) would be understood as a group of children in crisis. The expression “their wives had offered incense to other gods” (Jeremiah 44:15) might be understood as women who complain to other gods.

“There is a need to fundamentally change the approach and to start to teach the Bible as one might teach foreign languages like English and Arabic,” Prof. Zuckermann added, expressing concern about the teaching of this material. “Instead of teaching the Biblical texts as story, it is necessary to first translate the words and the verses so that they might understand the text and not feel removed from it.”

Prof. Nimrod Aloni, the editor in chief of the journal and the head of the Advanced Education Institute in the College, added that “the cultural changes in Israel have brought about a situation in which young people read the Bible almost like a foreign language, some might even argue more foreign than English, and there is a regression in their ability to connect with it in a meaningful way and internalize its treasures.”

Dr. Ilan Abecassis, lecturer in Bible at the Gordon College for Education, argues, on the contrary, that the problem is not that the Bible is alien but rather the lack of motivation of the pupils to make an effort in order to understand the richness of the Bible. “There is no doubt that the language is difficult for pupils and even for students, but the problem is that instead of making an effort to look in dictionaries for the meaning, the pupils simply give up with the distorted perception that the Bible is something that belongs to religious people anyway and that it has no relevance for modern life.”