The Biblical Languages
What Is Biblical Hebrew?
Clinton J. Moyer, PhD
Biblical Hebrew is the dialect of the Canaanite language used by the people of ancient Israel, and the primary language of the Hebrew Bible. It and the other regional dialects that make up this group—Ammonite, Moabite, Edomite, Phoenician, and so on—were mutually intelligible, meaning that a speaker of one of them could generally understand the others without difficulty.
What is Biblical Greek?
John Drummond
Biblical Greek, as it is commonly known, is a dialect of the ancient Greek language known as hēkoinēdialektos (“the common dialect”) or Koine Greek.
What is Latin?
Jennifer Drummond
Although the original biblical texts were written mostly in Hebrew or Greek, there is no denying that Latin was one of the most important languages of the biblical world. Indeed, many Jews and early Christians living within the Roman Empire would have spoken and read Latin.
What Is Akkadian?
Nathan Steinmeyer, PhD
Akkadian, the language of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, was once the lingua franca of the entire Near East. Despite dying out as a language two millennia ago, Akkadian’s decipherment in the 18th century unlocked a vast treasure trove of information on the history and peoples of the ancient Near East and the lands of the Bible. But what is Akkadian?
What is Ancient Egyptian?
Marek Dospěl, PhD
The Egyptian language is the sole representative of an autonomous branch of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Semito-Hamitic) language family. As such, Egyptian is related to both the Semitic languages of the Levant and the various languages of northern Africa. Ancient Egyptian’s closest relatives include Semitic (such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Ethiopic) and Berber.
What is Aramaic?
Clinton J. Moyer, PhD
The Aramaic language constitutes the eastern branch of the Northwest Semitic language family. Its closest relatives are the Canaanite dialects in the western branch of the family, such as Hebrew, Phoenician, and Moabite. Its place of origin is the expansive region known in antiquity as Aram.
What Is Hittite?
Nathan Steinmeyer, PhD
Hittite, the language of the ancient Anatolian kingdom of Hatti, is the oldest recorded Indo-European language. Predominantly used in central and eastern Anatolia and northwestern Syria, the Hittite language is attested—mostly on clay tablets—from around the 18th century BC until the fall of the Hittite empire during the Bronze Age Collapse in the 12th century BC.
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