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 to its organic structure, already suffered more considerable losses than the Arabic, which appears much later on the historical horizon; (2) that, notwithstanding this fact, we cannot at once and in all points concede priority to the latter; (3) that it is a mistake to consider with some that the Aramaic, on account of its simplicity (which is only due to the decay of its organic structure), is the oldest form of Semitic speech.

See Gesenius,, Lpz. 1815, §§ 5–18; Th. Nöldeke’s art., ‘Sprache, hebräische,’ in Schenkel’s, Bd. v, Lpz. 1875; F. Buhl, ‘Hebräische Sprache,’ in Hauck’s, vii (1899), p. 506 ff.; A. Cowley, ‘Hebrew Language and Literature,’ in the forthcoming ed. of the ; W. R. Smith in the, ii. London, 1901, p. 1984 ff.; A. Lukyn Williams, ‘Hebrew,’ in Hastings’, ii. p. 325 ff., Edinb. 1899.

1. The name usually denotes the language of the sacred writings of the Israelites which form the canon of the. It is also called in contradistinction to the New Hebrew of Jewish writings of the post-biblical period. The name Hebrew language does not occur in the Old Testament itself. Instead of it we find in the term language of Canaan, and  in the Jews’ language  (cf. ). In the last-cited passage it already agrees with the later (post-exilic) usage, which gradually extended the name Jews, Jewish to the whole nation, as in Haggai, Nehemiah, and the book of Esther.

The distinction between the names Hebrew and Israelites  is that the latter was rather a national name of honour, with also a religious significance, employed by the people themselves, while the former appears as the less significant name by which the nation was known amongst foreigners. Hence in the Old Testament Hebrews are only spoken of either when the name is employed by themselves as contrasted with foreigners (,  &c., ) or when it is put in the mouth of those who are not Israelites (  &c.) or, finally, when it is used in opposition to other nations. In and  the text is clearly corrupt. In the Greek and Latin authors, as well as in Josephus, the name, Hebraei, &c., alone occurs. Of the many explanations of the gentilic, the derivation from with the derivative suffix   appears to be the only one philologically possible. The name accordingly denoted the Israelites as being those who inhabited the ʿeber, i.e. the district on the other side of the Jordan (or according to others the Euphrates), and would therefore originally be only appropriate when used by the nations on this side of the Jordan or Euphrates. We must, then, suppose that after the crossing of the river in question it had been retained by the Abrahamidae as an old-established name, and within certain limits