What is Late Biblical Hebrew?

Abstract

AbstractLate Biblical Hebrew is the literary language preserved in the post-exilic books of the Hebrew Bible. It differs from the literary Hebrew of the First Temple period, Classical Biblical Hebrew, in several orthographic, grammatical, syntactic, and lexical features. The distinction between pre-exilic and post-exilic language in the Hebrew of the Bible contradicts the assertion of the minimalists, who argue for the late date of the composition of the Hebrew Bible. The linguistic examination of Biblical Hebrew reveals an unmistakable difference between the language of the First Temple period and the language of the Second Temple period.