Hebrew was already not spoken in Jesus’ time. They spoke Aramaic. Hebrew was for the Jews like Latin is for Catholics. It’s the official lanuage, but nobody really speaks it anymore.I read this quote from the book Luther: Man between God and the Devil “Modern Bible scholarship in the sixteenth centrury with its rediscovery of Hebrew and Greek…called into question the authority of the Latin text of the Bible.” When was Hebrew and Greek lost? Did not St. Jerome know Herbrew and Greek.
That is an excellent comparison, though I am not fully convinced that is completely the case. I do believe that Hebrew was more fluent than what some think, since there are lots of Hebrew idioms in the NT, and the Dead Sea Scrolls are an abundant source of Hebrew manuscripts that cover the period of 300BC to 100AD. Tradition also tells us that Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew, though we have discussed this in another thread over whether it was Aramaic or Hebrew, but that’s another story.Hebrew was already not spoken in Jesus’ time. They spoke Aramaic. Hebrew was for the Jews like Latin is for Catholics. It’s the official lanuage, but nobody really speaks it anymore.
septuagint.net/
True. I think of my own upbringing. At home we were not allowed to speak English. We were always told “Deutsch Sprechen” when we answered our parents’ German in English.I do believe that Hebrew was more fluent than what some think, since there are lots of Hebrew idioms in the NT, and the Dead Sea Scrolls are an abundant source of Hebrew manuscripts that cover the period of 300BC to 100AD.
The original languages were not lost, but they were used by those who actually had a purpose for them. There were some Christians who had possession of Hebrew Scriptures, even New Testament, as St. Jerome has recorded. Since the use of Hebrew was very isolated then the demand for Hebrew manuscripts were lower than Greek or Latin. Fortunately we have had some Church Fathers and early Christian writers who was skilled in Hebrew, such as Jerome and Origen, some say Tertullian knew it, which I don’t doubt because he was brilliant.
St. Jerome knew Hebrew and Greek, though errors in his translation still existed.I read this quote from the book Luther: Man between God and the Devil “Modern Bible scholarship in the sixteenth centrury with its rediscovery of Hebrew and Greek…called into question the authority of the Latin text of the Bible.” When was Hebrew and Greek lost? Did not St. Jerome know Herbrew and Greek.
Still better than the “Murderers” Bible or the “Wicked” Bible!St. Jerome knew Hebrew and Greek, though errors in his translation still existed.
They were never lost. To put it bluntly, the quote is a blatant lie. Greek has been continually spoken as a first language by millions of people ever since ancient times. Hebrew has always been the official sacred language of Judaism used in all its religious services and widely understood even by a significant number of educated Gentile Christians.I read this quote from the book Luther: Man between God and the Devil “Modern Bible scholarship in the sixteenth centrury with its rediscovery of Hebrew and Greek…called into question the authority of the Latin text of the Bible.” When was Hebrew and Greek lost?
The quotation probably means that the reformers started to read the Hebrew and Greek in preference to the Latin Vulgate. Since all translation involves interpretation they might then have began asking questions about Jerome’s interpretation of the Greek and Hebrew.I read this quote from the book Luther: Man between God and the Devil “Modern Bible scholarship in the sixteenth centrury with its rediscovery of Hebrew and Greek…called into question the authority of the Latin text of the Bible.” When was Hebrew and Greek lost? Did not St. Jerome know Herbrew and Greek.