The primeval language and Hebrew ethnicity in ancient Jewish and Christian thought until Augustine

Abstract

This article deals with the topics of the primeval language and Hebrew ethnicity in ancient Jewish and Christian thought. After a survey of these topics in the Old Testament (chapter 2), I proceed to explore the historical development of the same topics in ancient Judaism (chapter 3) and in ancient patristic exegesis and apologetics (chapter 4 and 5). I demonstrate how and, to some extent, why the primordial language was identified with Hebrew in Hellenistic Judaism and describe how this idea was adopted by Greek and Latin patristic authors until the end of late antiquity with main emphasis on Augustine’s views. The article also charts the development of the accompanying concept of Hebrew ethnicity in ancient thought, primarily with regard to the question how the term Hebrew was etymologized as an ethnic term and how it was utilized as a religious term in Christian apologetics of late antiquity. This article is based on a wide range of primary sources in antiquity.