Hebrew or Arabic - the root language?

[agedman]

The discussion on the eternal sonship of Christ does not address this topic, but it is related (at least slightly) in that a view of the Hebrew must be considered. It is not THIS threads desire to pursue a word study on that topic.

Rather, I was wondering, who on the board would view the original language of the Scriptures as derived from Arabic and who would state that Arabic derived from Hebrew?

It is important, because, when discussions of the basic form of the word we use in English for God (Elohim), there comes a time when one recognizes that the word "god" does not do justice and is so very weak even often the English misses an important nuance in the name(s) of God in the Scriptures.

To give a tease to some on the BB, if one is to assume Arabic is the root language of Hebrew, then the discussion of the term used for god in that language (alah) cannot be disassociated from that of the Hebrew (Elohim) for the root of BOTH would be the same (alaha).

The discussion on this thread is to merely state your opinion to the question of which language derived from which.

Barnes holds that the Hebrew derived from Arabic.

Do you agree? If you disagree, why?

 

[preachinjesus]

Hebrew is not descendent from Arabic.

While both are Semitic languages, Hebrew has origins in Proto-Cananite languages and probably Phoenenian dialects. Arabic doesn't appear in the same eras as Ancient, or Biblical, Hebrew. Ugaritic is probably also a major influence on Ancient Hebrew.

One of the challenges with inordinately old works like Barnes is that he is writing before modern scholarship. For instance, Ugaritic wasn't formally discovered until about 1930. Barnes was writing at the middle of the 1800s. This means he is able to only speak about what was available to him. His work, while helpful, isn't updated with the best research. This is why he makes claims that simply aren't true.

In case you're looking for a good language tree based in relevant scholarship here is a good example of Semitic languages:

 

[agedman]

According to the tree you posted, they both come from the same root of "proto-simitic."

I am not suggesting an argument.

Chasing down the "root" of a language is often a shifting playing field in which the game changes with team substitution.

This is why I wanted opinion sharing on this thread.

The chart you present is interesting because it distinguishes between Jewish and Hebrew as descending from two different sources, one Aramaic, and the other Phoenician.

My own personal view is that because Abram was originally from the Southern area of Iraq, but lived extensively in Haran which is Turkey and then moved into what is now Israel, just as one adopts to the language of the area in which they live, so did Abraham. No doubt he mixed both the Phoenician language of the Greece / Turkey area with that of the Arabic language in which he grew up with in Iraq.

That then would place the Jewish / Hebrew languages primarily first language to the Arabic, and not to the Phoenician.

However, the writer of the opening books of the Bible was Moses, not Abraham. Moses grew up in the Egyptian lands and his language would not be that of what Abraham would recognize any more than American English would fit the ears of King Richard of England. The chart doesn't account for that influence.

I am most interested in what opinions rest upon in this thread.

 

[Crabtownboy]

What language did Abram speak?

The best evidence to date suggests that Abraham and his Horite people spoke the languages of the peoples among whom they lived. As rulers of the Afro-Asiatic dominion, Abraham's Kushite ancestors spoke Nilo-Saharan languages, some of which are now extinct. Two are of special interest: Sara and Horo, both connected to Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors who worshiped Ra and Horus.

Abraham probably spoke more than one language. He would have known the Kushitic Akkadian of the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley where he grew up, and he would have know the Proto-Arabic spoken in Canaan. He likely read the script of the Thamudic group of Arabia and he certainly knew the Canaanite script by which his sons were designated by the Canaanite Y as rulers.

http://biblicalanthropology.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-language-did-abraham-speak.html

 

[wpe3bql]

I wonder what language we'll speak in the New Jerusalem. :tonofbricks:

 

[percho]

A very interesting topic, of which I am not remotely qualified to participate. Therefore I will read only.

Thanks for the thread.

 

[agedman]

As I mentioned in the post above, what language Abram spoke may not really be what language is the root language of the scriptures.

The first language of Moses was possibly Egyptian, and Hebrew a second language - perhaps why he told God about not speaking well before the people.

Could it be that the original language of the Scriptures was more Egyptian than Hebrew? Doubtful, because for whom the text was written.

Then the problem may be, was the Egyptian/Hebrew the original of the Scriptures. Sort of a Yiddish of that day?

If so, then what is the root language of the Scriptures? Egyptian?