I have been meaning to put together a page for my Biblical Hebrew Resources pages collecting the various resources available online, so I have been collecting a fairly impressive list of sites. The Parallel Hebrew Old Testament just came to my attention the other day and it has a pretty neat feature: not only can you have the Hebrew Bible with the Latin Vulgate as well as a whole variety of English translations, you can also have it in paleo-Hebrew characters!
This is kind of neat, though practically the only use I can think of it is for text critics to be able to see how a passage would have looked in a paleo-Hebrew script. (You can also purchase the software for your own computer for a mere $5)
(HT Jim West)
For your Biblical Hebrew Resource page, have you considered the The First Hebrew Primer: The Adult Beginner’s Path to Biblical Hebrew, 3rd ed., by Simon, Ethelyn, Irene Resnikoff, and Linda Motzkin – especially the Logos Bible Software edition? Seems like a good introductory course. I was wondering if you are familiar with it and, if so, if you recommend it. Thanks.
Hi, I ask out of ignorance. Do any parts of the OT exist in Paleo-Hebrew, or is this a modern translation into an ancient text? Many thanks
Nigel, paleo-Hebrew refers to the alphabet, namely the shapes of the letters, not the language. So this is not a translation, but a transcription. Transciptions refer to writing words using the alphabet of another language, eg, if I were to write your name, Nigel, using the Russian Cyrillic rather than the Latin alphabet I would be transcribing your name.
Paleo-Hebrew has the same 22 letters that the Hebrew alphabet has with the same names, but they look different. So in this case this Bible transcribes the normal Hebrew Bible into paleo-Hebrew letters, which is the alphabet that the earliest Bibles were written in.
Of course there are numerous examples in the DSS where both normal hebrew and paleo-hebrew are used in the same scroll … where the name of God is written in paleo-hebrew amongst a text made up of otherwise normal hebrew characters. In using that methodology the use of YHWH practically jumps off the page (scroll I guess). So maybe what we need now is modern bibles with LORD written in gothic letters or something!
Hi, I have a few friends that teach on the Paleo Hebrew. The Paleo script is the oldest form of Hebrew, hence the oldest language. It has so many meanings that you can’t see in the modern Hebrew. What an aewsome thing for The Creator of the universe to bring back Paleo in the time of the restoration of all things. Bless His Kadosh (holy) Name. His Name is YHWH.
I recently acquired from an antiquities dealer, Fayez Barakat (whose family is the proprietor of the Barakat Galleries in Jerusalem, London, and Los Angeles), what are represented to be lead cast paleo-Hebrew letters formerly affixed to or embedded in some sort of undetermined ancient structure or edifice, which were unearthed in Jerusalem’s Kidron Valley. While several of the letters are intact, most are in fragments. I would very much appreciate your referral to professionals who might assist in (1) verifying the antiquity of the letters, (2) reassembling the letter fragments, (3) deciphering the message originally conveyed by the letters, and (4) determining the nature of the structure or edifice to which or in which the letters were affixed or embedded.