How much of the Bible can a native Israeli understand?

I don’t know for sure, but I would assume probably not much. My reasoning is that languages change/evolve over time, including their written word. If you went back to 1000AD and tried to read something written in English, it would make pretty much no sense to you. Even just going back a few hundred years people use slightly different spellings, or words that we don’t use at all anymore.. or even invent new words. My assumption (and again I don’t know this 100% to be fact) is that over the course of over 2000 years, the Hebrew written language has also evolved dramatically… to the point where someone with a basic understanding of the current written language would probably not be able to translate it.

@tedd: Hebrew is a little unusual in that it is a revived language.

Actually, though, it is a bit unlikely that it can be read with a great deal of understanding without a great deal of training. Forget the vocabulary, the Hebrew Bible involves a lot of verse and allegory. It’s why Genesis sometimes seems so muddled.

For example… I found a copy of the Canterbury Tales, printed in 1492… and below an excerpt from it’s wikipedia page…

‘Wepyng and waylyng, care and oother sorwe
I knowe ynogh, on even and a-morwe,’
Quod the Marchant, ‘and so doon oother mo
That wedded been.’

(Modern English translation)

‘Weeping and wailing, care and other sorrow
I know enough, in the evening and in the morning,’
said the Merchant, ‘and so does many another
who has been married.’

It also pointed out that in that time the “e” at the end of words was still pronounced… weird.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uofglibrary/3653230551/in/photostream/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_tales#Text

One of the best commentaries I’ve found on this question is this article by the linguist Ghil‘ad Zuckermann.

He says that while a modern Israeli can read biblical Hebrew with a fair degree of fluency, that fluency is itself misleading and actually masks substantial differences in the understanding of words and phrases, so that what the reader thinks he is reading is not what was actually meant by the writer: “In the last ten years, I have sadly acquired many enemies because I insisted that Israelis not only do not understand the Bible, but much worse: they misunderstand it without even realizing it! By and large, Israeli speakers are the worst students in advanced studies of the Bible.”

I was told that the Bible reads much more easily in the original than in English translation by a Russian immigrant to the U.S. who lived for several years in Israel prior to coming to the U.S. Her command of English was pretty good, so I have to give some credence to what she said.

Given how language evolves over time, you would need to study the ancient language and word meanings to be able to read early codices.

The Tea Party Republicans in New Hampshire proposed a rule that all laws they passed had to be based on the original Magna Carta written in 1215. It was only later, when they tried to figure out how to actually do this that they realized the English of that time is unreadable today, and most or the regulations in the original Magna Carta make no sense for today’s world. Take a look at this image of its text.

Some parts of the Old Testament were written not in Hebrew but in Aramaic; the original NT was written predominately in a form of Greek called Koine.

@tedd: Agreed. It is weirde.

Someone fluent in Hebrew can read the Torah fluently.

The way I understand it Hebrew does not and did not evolve like English. English has changed drastically over time, and continues to. So, things written in Hebrew from a few thousand years ago should be fairly easily read and understood to the extent that even back in the time of the writing people might have argued the meaning of a sentence. The same way a law can be written in English today, and literally tomorrow someone might interpret the law to mean or cover a situation not intended. Kind of like how we say what is important is the spirit in which the law was intended.

But, I am not an expert regarding the Hebrew language.

Why does the person need to be a native Israeli? They just need to be fluent in Hebrew. I know plenty of people in America whose first language is not English, it is their mother’s language. And, others who become fluent in second languages.

wow thanks everyone. This question was actually caused because of my desire to read the Bible in its original language, but having failed, I turned to Modern Hebrew in the hope of better understanding the Bible with my Modern Hebrew knowledge. And now I’m going to read what thorninmud linked.. thx thorninmud.

@dumitus Welcome to fluther.