This book introduces the student to the textual study of the Hebrew Bible--to help such a student "perceive the work of the numberless and nameless scribes torn between tradition and fashion in their restrained attempts to update the orthography of Scripture." Sixteen essays serve as the bridge from older methods for the study of orthography to newer ones, using the computer to analyze large bodies of text.

Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew is an indispensable publication for biblical scholars, whose interpretations of scriptures must engage the dates when texts were first composed and recorded, and for scholars of language, who will want to read these essays for the latest perspectives on the historical development of Biblical Hebrew. For Hebraists and linguists interested in the historical development of the Hebrew language, it is an essential collection of studies that address the language’s development during the Iron Age (in its various subdivisions), the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods, and the Early Hellenistic period. Written for both “text people” and “language people,” this is the first book to address established Historical Linguistics theory as it applies to the study of Hebrew and to focus on the methodologies most appropriate for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. The book provides exemplary case studies of orthography, lexicography, morphology, syntax, language contact, dialectology, and sociolinguistics and, because of its depth of coverage, has broad implications for the linguistic dating of Biblical texts. The presentations are rounded out by useful summary histories of linguistic diachrony in Aramaic, Ugaritic, and Akkadian, the three languages related to and considered most crucial for Biblical research.

This is the first up-to-date, and complete grammar of Egyptian Aramaic as presented in texts of Egyptian provenance dating from the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. and as edited by B. Porten and A. Yardeni in their Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt (Jerusalem, 1986-). The grammar covers not only the phonology and morphology, but contains a substantial section on morphosyntax and syntax. It is a descriptive grammar enriched with the expert knowledge and familiarity of one of the co-authors with the contents and background of the texts in question. It is meant to replace P. Leander's Laut- und Formenlehre des Ägyptisch-Aramäischen (1928), but also supplements it substantially, because it had no syntax. Due to the utmost importance and interest of these ancient texts, this grammar is a vade mecum for every Aramaist, Semitist and Historian in the field.

This up-to-date grammar of Egyptian Aramaic of the middle of the first millennium BCE is meant to replace P. Leander's grammar of 1928, but also has a substantial section on syntax, which was totally lacking in Leander's grammar. The grammar is based on a much greater amount of texts than is the case with Leander's grammar, but also on an edition of texts incorporating a personal fresh study of them as presented in Porten and Yardeni's "Textbook of Aramaic Texts from Ancien Egypt" (1986).

The articles presented in this book include studies in Rabbinics, Classical Hebrew linguistics, and early Hebrew-Greek glossary. The articles substantially cover the fields included in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Written by leading scholars in the field, they offer a fine example of the wealth and variety of the present day academic study of Hebrew, Judaism, and Jewish culture.

This volume honors the extraordinary scholarship of Prof. Gary A. Rendsburg, whose work and friendship have influenced so many in the last five decades. Twenty-five prominent scholars from the US, Europe, Israel, and Australia have contributed significant original studies in three of Rendsburg’s areas of interest and expertise: Hebrew language, Hebrew Bible, and Hebrew manuscripts. These linguistic, philological, literary, epigraphic, and historical approaches to the study of Hebrew and its textual traditions serve as a worthy tribute to such an accomplished scholar, and also as an illustration how all of these approaches can complement one another in the fields of Hebrew and Biblical Studies.

This volume brings together papers relating to the pronunciation of Semitic languages and the representation of their pronunciation in written form. The papers focus on sources representative of a period that stretches from late antiquity until the Middle Ages. A large proportion of them concern reading traditions of Biblical Hebrew, especially the vocalisation notation systems used to represent them. Also discussed are orthography and the written representation of prosody. Beyond Biblical Hebrew, there are studies concerning Punic, Biblical Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic, as well as post-biblical traditions of Hebrew such as piyyuṭ and medieval Hebrew poetry. There were many parallels and interactions between these various language traditions and the volume demonstrates that important insights can be gained from such a wide range of perspectives across different historical periods.