The Biblical sources of Modern Hebrew syntax

The paper assesses the influence on Modern Hebrew of the two previous spoken stages of Hebrew: Biblical Hebrew and Rabbinic Hebrew in its early, Mishnaic, phase. Contra the received view in the current literature, I argue that Modern Hebrew has in many respects readopted the syntax of Biblical Hebrew, the earlier of the two ancient stages, rather than being a development of the subsequent Rabbinic stage. The paper discusses particular constructions whose Biblical syntax had historically been replaced by Rabbinic syntax, yet were reinstated in Modern Hebrew. These include clausal constructions such as conditional and unconditional clauses, clausal complements of aspectual and modal auxiliaries, and gerundive clauses. The Rabbinic component in the syntax of Modern Hebrew seems to be limited to values and exponents drawn from Rabbinic Hebrew for the functional categories originating in Biblical Hebrew or in languages with which Hebrew was in contact during its history