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SEMITES, SEMITIC LANGUAGES

Although the word “Semite” does not occur in the biblical materials, we can nonetheless properly speak of the biblical Semites. These people first appear in the Table of Nations (Gen. 10), an early Israelite ethnographic list. The Table conceptualizes Israel’s ancient neighbors as the descendants of Noah’s three sons, with the Semites being the progeny of the eldest, Shem. Although identifying these progeny with particular nations is sometimes difficult, it is nonetheless clear that Shem is to be associated especially with peoples to the east of Israel (e.g., Persia, Assyria, Babylon) and also with the Arameans to the northeast and with some regions of Africa. Most important perhaps is that Shem is the ethnic forefather of the Israelites, being an ancestor three generations removed from Eber (the Hebrew eponymous ancestor) and 10 generations removed from the patriarch Abraham. The author of the Table thus viewed Israel as having ancient genealogical links to the great civilizations of the east.

The rationale behind the construction of the Table is not entirely clear, but it seems certain that linguistic similarities played an important role in the threefold division it offers, as is evident from its own testimony: “These are the sons of Shem, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.” On the other hand, ideological factors also influenced its composition, as indicated by the fact that the Canaanites — a group closely related to the Hebrews both linguistically and culturally — are listed as Hamites rather than as Semites. Other explanations for the Table’s organization, particularly socioeconomic and sociocultural criteria, have also been suggested. However, our efforts to understand the scheme of the Table are hindered somewhat by the fact that some editorial changes have probably been made to the text.

The Table of Nations has exerted a considerable influence on the history of Western anthropology, primarily because for much of its history Europe viewed the biblical material as an authoritative historical source. As a result, early efforts to catalogue the peoples and languages of the world followed the contours laid out in the Table. The peoples encountered during Western imperial expansion — Indians, Japanese, Chinese, and Native Americans — were frequently inserted into the threefold taxonomy provided by the biblical lists. Critical study of the biblical text and its genre during the 19th and 20th centuries has changed this, since for many scholars the Table’s literary character is no longer viewed as historiographic but rather as early Israelite speculation about the origins of nations and peoples. So although some conservative Jewish and Christian scholars still view the Table as a helpful taxonomic source, this is generally not the case.

Semitic Languages

Despite this change in perspective, linguists nonetheless continue to speak of Semites and Semitic peoples, not in an ethnic sense but rather in a linguistic sense (although the ethnic/linguistic distinction has been frequently blurred). The Semitic language family is represented by both ancient and modern tongues and is chiefly characterized by the fact that nouns, verbs, and adjectives generally derive from roots of three consonants. So, e.g., in Hebrew the verb “to speak” (dāḇar) and the nouns “word” (dāḇār) and “oracle” (dĕḇîr) derive from the same consonantal combination, d-b-r. Although one often finds that the same three-consonant combination is used in various Semitic languages, this is not always the case. And even when it is, the root meanings can be quite different. Using the above example of d-b-r, Akk. dabāru, “to push back,” is not very close to the Hebrew meaning “to speak.” However, Akk. dabābu, which uses the somewhat different combination d-b-b, does mean “to speak.” So although we cannot always explain the similarities and differences between these languages, our efforts to compare the various Semitic tongues presuppose their essential similarity.

The Semitic languages, which stem from an original “Proto-Semitic” used in the Fertile Crescent region, made their first literary appearance in the East Semitic languages of the Akkadians and Eblaites (3rd millennium b.c.e.). At roughly the same time another branch of the language family developed in the western part of the region (hence called West Semitic) which is considered the linguistic ancestor of the biblical languages, Hebrew and Aramaic. Closely related to the development of Hebrew, both historically and linguistically, are Phoenician, Moabite, Ammonite, and Edomite. However, although the early forms of Hebrew appeared sometime after 1200, the language of the Hebrew Bible is somewhat different because much of the Bible was written in a later period (and so with later forms of the language) and because the text has undergone a continuing process of “modernization,” i.e., the replacement of older forms and constructions with newer ones. Three major Semitic tongues continue to be used in modern times: Arabic, Amharic (= Ethiopic), and Israeli Hebrew.

New Testament

Beginning with the Babylonian Exile and then accelerating with the advent of the 6th-century Persian conquests, the language of Palestinian Judaism was increasingly influenced by Aramaic, so that by the NT period it was the common language of the region. As a result, the ministry of Jesus and his disciples was carried out in this language, and this in turn influenced the composition of the NT Gospels — despite the fact that the Gospels were written in Greek, not Aramaic. These Semitic influences are sometimes explicit (cf. the Aramaic quote of Jesus in Mark 5:41) but are more often subtle changes in the language of the Greek text called aramaisms or semiticisms. These Semitic linguistic features are carefully identified by scholars and their import for the interpretive task is weighed accordingly.

Bibliography. G. Bergsträsser, Introduction to the Semitic Languages (Winona Lake, 1983); S. Moscati, The Semites in Ancient History (Cardiff, 1959); Moscati, ed., An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages (Wiesbaden, 1964), 3-21; B. Oded, “The Table of Nations (Genesis 10): A Socio-cultural Approach,” ZAW 98 (1986): 14-31; G. M. Schramm, “The Semitic Languages: An Overview,” in Current Trends in Linguistics, ed. T. A. Sebeok, 6: Linguistics in South West Asia and North Africa (Hague, 1976), 257-60.

Kenton Lane Sparks

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SEMITES, SEMITIC LANGUAGES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)