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On the Language of the Liturgical Document XḤev/Ṣe 6

2023, The Shamir, the Letters, the Writing, and the Tablets (Mishnah Avot 5:6): Studies in Honor of Professor Shamir Yona

Abstract

XḤev/Se 6 is a liturgical document that was committed to writing around 100 CE and bears significant resemblance, in form and content, to rabbinic benedictions. It stands out among other contemporary Judaean Desert documents (circa 70–135 CE) in its genre and Hebrew style. The paper offers a typological analysis of the language of the text and a close examination of its significant features. It appears that the orthography and phonology of XḤev/Se 6, which resemble the Judaean Desert corpus, are in line with the document's time and provenance, and betray contemporary scribal practices typical to private documents, while in its morphology, syntax, lexicon, and phraseology, the text reflects an earlier literary style of the Second Temple period and, as expected, relies heavily on Biblical Hebrew. The sheer difference between this style and the typical language of the Judaean Desert documents, which is very close to Mishnaic Hebrew, testifies to a living and rich knowledge of Hebrew at the end of the first century CE in Judaea.