Thus a general introduction to the Hebrew language would best be served by confining it to the biblical phase and, where relevant, by pointing out divergencies which appeared in the later stages. Yet, divergencies in grammar were, for the most part, not fundamental, but peripheral.

In the post-biblical and modern phases there was a progressive accretion in vocabulary by the creation of new words in accordance with the inherent laws of the language and by borrowing. It is remarkable, however, that the basic structure of the language has remained constant throughout all its stages of development. Because it was transmitted from one generation to the next, over many centuries, as a written language which found oral expression only in pious recital, its structure became artificially fixed. Nevertheless, biblical Hebrew persisted as the language of the Scriptures and as a model for compositions of a devotional nature. In biblical times Hebrew was a living, spoken language but, from the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era, it ceased to be the vernacular. There are four main phases in the history of the Hebrew language: the biblical or classical, the post-biblical or neo-classical and rabbinic (which includes medieval scholarly writings and continued until the latter part of the 19 th century), and the modern. The following entry is divided into two sections: (i) an Introduction for the non-specialist and (ii) a detailed survey.

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