Studies in Ancient Hebrew Semantics.

• Author: Long, Gary
• Position: Review

Edited by TAKAMITSU MURAOKA. Abr-Nahrain Supplement Series, vol. 4. Louvain: PEETERS PRESS, 1995. Pp. 107. FB 1400 (paper).

This work is a collection of studies on the semantics and lexicography of ancient Hebrew, most of which were delivered at a Leiden University symposium in July 1994. Readers will find a helpful index of all Semitic, Greek, and Latin lexical items mentioned in the articles (pp. 103-5). I comment briefly on each of the contributions.

For many years, Avi Hurvitz has focused on the diachronic investigation of Biblical Hebrew. In "Continuity and Innovation in Biblical Hebrew: The Case of 'Semantic Change' in Post-exilic Writings" (pp. 1-10), Hurvitz offers three criteria, the accumulative weight of which can be used for identifying a Late Biblical Hebrew lexical item or phrasal collocation. He offers one test case, the root [Hebrew Text Omitted] and lexeme [Hebrew Text Omitted], to illustrate semantic change from Classical Biblical Hebrew through LBH to rabbinic literature. Though not readily observable from this particular contribution, Hurvitz' work in diachronic issues has important ramifications for dating biblical literature and for cautioning against approaching biblical history and language ahistorically.

Jean Margain ("Semantique hebraique: L'Apport des Targums" [pp. 11-17]) reminds the reader of the importance of the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible. Onqelos and Jonathan, particularly, with their preservation of source language form, can offer the hebraist a wealth of information on BH lexical semantics. In "The Semantics of the LXX and Its Role in Clarifying Ancient Hebrew Semantics" (pp. 19-32), Takamitsu Muraoka suggests that the LXX may help especially with realia (e.g., [Hebrew Text Omitted]) and homonyms ([Hebrew Text Omitted]), but its own Greek must be carefully analyzed (Muraoka traces the development of the LXX's [Greek Text Omitted], the origin of proselyte) to avoid its own incorrect understanding ([Greek Text Omitted] "ambidextrous" used incorrectly by the LXX to translate [Hebrew Text Omitted], "left-handed").

In "Mishnaic Vocabulary and Mishnaic Literature as Tools for the Study of Biblical Semantics," Gad B. Sarfatti (pp. 33-48) claims that Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew are interconnected, though precisely how is not so certain. What is clearer is that biblical lexical semantics can be aided by MH by considering the meaning of biblical words in MH and what is said about the meaning of...