When was Hebrew founded?

Answer 1

If you are asking how old the Hebrew language is, it is believed to be at least 12,000 years old.

If you are asking old old the Hebrew ethnic group is, it's possibly at least as old as the language, but it became a distinct group about 4000 years ago.

Answer 2

Hebrew wasn't "created" but it simply evolved from older Semitic dialects spoken in the Near East over 5,000 thousand years ago.

Modern Hebrew was revived during the early part of the 20th century. It is basically Talmudic Hebrew (Rabbinic Hebrew spoken 2000 years ago) with influences from Yiddish (Judeo-German), Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), Aramaic, Russian, German, Latin, Greek, and English.

Answer 3

The Hebrew Language is a Semitic Language from the Afroasiatic Language Family.

At about 4,000 BCE, the Semitic Languages were spoken from the Caucus Mountains to Ethiopia. No one knows where they came from. Linguists have good ideas. The Hebrew people came about in the mountains in the area near what is Israel. They spoke a Semitic Language. They differed from other Semitic people in that they did not use Semitic numbers but used Egyptian numbers. That separated them from the people who lived in towns in the same area.

So historically, it would seem that the Hebrews came from a Semitic speaking people who had been in Egypt and had picked up some Egyptian features. They had kept the Semitic language. Then they left Egypt and moved to the hills in the area of the Western Mediterranean.

Answer 4

Spoken Hebrew is estimated to have been around for about 12,000 years, long before there was a Hebrew alphabet. It evolved from Old Canaanite.

Written Hebrew might be about 3,000 years old. Archaeological evidence for written Hebrew dates to the 10th Century BCE.

Answer:

Our tradition states that Hebrew was the language with which God created the world (Rashi commentary, Genesis 2:23, quoting the midrash). Since it was considered a holy language and was used for prayer and the teaching of religious tradition, it was not spoken in mundane contexts and wasn't taught to just anyone. It was handed down from individual teachers to disciples as part of the original tradition; and the same goes for the art of writing. Thus, certain Hebrew Psalms (92 and 139) and teachings are attributed to Adam, the first man. The wider public, most of whom descended relatively quickly into idolatry and sin, were not given access to the treasures of the original tradition, since by their actions they implicitly repudiated it.

After the Flood, the Hebrew language had a brief period in which it was generally known, thanks to Noah (see Rashi commentary on Genesis 11:1). This is why many hundreds of Hebrew words have cognates in languages as diverse as German and Japanese. The alphabet, which secular scholars trace back to the Phoenicians, is according to our tradition actually one step older than that: it is from the Hebrew aleph-bet, which those of the Phoenicians and Greeks closely mimic.

After the Flood also, the knowledge of Hebrew eventually declined (see Genesis ch.11) and was preserved only among the Western Semites, the ancestors and cousins of Abraham. Eber, from whom our word "Hebrew" (Ivrit) is named, was a Semitic descendant of Noah and ancestor of Abraham. He was one of the major transmitters of the original traditions. He is credited with having broadened the Hebrew language, and some Hebrew grammatical constructs are attributed to him by certain Jewish researchers.

As time passes, languages grow and adapt. Thus today we can identify words and types of usage that go all the way back (and these are the ones that are most likely to have widespread cognates). And then there are Late Biblical Hebrew; the Hebrew of the Mishna; Medieval Hebrew, and so on. All of these have a broad overlap, but each has introduced its added vocabulary words and usages. Today, Torah-Hebrew includes some words that were borrowed from the Persian, some words taken from ancient Greece, Aramaic words, etc.

Answer 5

Jewish tradition states that the Hebrew language was directly from God. It was the language with which He created the world (Rashi commentary, Genesis 2:23, quoting the midrash); and it is the language in which He spoke on Mount Sinai.

Since it is a holy language and is used for prayer and the teaching of religious tradition, it was not spoken in mundane contexts and wasn't taught to just anyone. It was handed down from individual teachers to disciples as part of the original tradition; and the same goes for the art of writing (letters on parchment, as opposed to cuneiform or hieroglyphics). Thus, certain Hebrew Psalms (92 and 139) and teachings are attributed to Adam, the first man. The wider public, most of whom descended relatively quickly into idolatry and sin, were not given access to the treasures of the original tradition, since by their actions they implicitly repudiated it.

After the Flood, the Hebrew language had a brief period in which it was generally known, thanks to Noah (see Rashi commentary on Genesis 11:1). This is why many hundreds of Hebrew words have cognates in languages as diverse as German and Japanese. The alphabet, which secular scholars trace back to the Greeks (Alpha, Beta) and from there to the Phoenicians, is according to our tradition actually one step older than that: it is a variant of the Hebrew aleph-bet, which those of the Phoenicians and Greeks closely mimic. The earliest known Greek inscription (the Dipylon) was written from right to left.

After the Flood also, the knowledge of Hebrew eventually declined (see Genesis ch.11) and was preserved only among the Western Semites, the ancestors and cousins of Abraham. Eber, from whom our word "Hebrew" (Ivrit) is named, was a Semitic descendant of Noah and ancestor of Abraham. He was one of the major transmitters of the original traditions. He is credited with having broadened the Hebrew language, and some Hebrew grammatical constructs are attributed to him by certain Jewish researchers.

As time passes, languages grow and adapt. Thus today we can identify many Hebrew words and types of usage that go all the way back (these are the ones that are most likely to be found in the Hebrew Bible and to have cognates in other languages). And then there are Late Biblical Hebrew; the Hebrew of the Mishna; Medieval Hebrew, and so on. All of these have a broad overlap, but each has introduced its added vocabulary-words and usages.

Today, Torah-Hebrew includes some words that were borrowed from the Persian, some words taken from ancient Greece, Aramaic words, etc.

Note that Hebrew never died out among the Jewish people, since it has always been used in Rabbinical writings and in the prayer-services and daily blessings.

Answer 6

The first Hebrew script developed alongside others in the region Canaan and Arabia during the course of the late second and first millennia BCE.

It is sometimes claimed that around the 10th century BCE a distinct Hebrew variation of the Phoenician alphabet, the original "Hebrew script", emerged, which was widely used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah until they fell in the 8th and 6th centuries BCE.

Answer 7

Jewish tradition holds that Abraham was the first Hebrew, who lived in Israel around 2000 BCE.

Archaeological evidence for the Hebrews goes back to 1600 BCE.

Answer 8

The Hebrew language was not made. It evolved naturally, probably from Old Canaanite, more that 12,000 years ago.