Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet

Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet
Passive vs. Active Nouns
Greek nouns are words that refer to a person, place or
thing. Hebrew nouns refer to the action of a person place
or thing.
The Hebrews are active people and their vocabulary
reflects this lifestyle. The Greek culture recognizes words
such as knee and gift as nouns, which by themselves
impart no action. But, in Hebrew, just as in most Ancient
languages 26 , there is no distinction between nouns and
verbs, all words are related to action. The Greek mind
designates a knee and a gift as inanimate nouns unrelated
in meaning. The Hebrew mind sees the knee ($rb / berak)
as "the knee that bends" and a gift (hkrb / berakah) as
"what is brought with a bent knee".
Even the Hebrew nouns for father and mother are
descriptive of action. The Hebrew word for father is ba /
av and literally means "the one who gives strength to the
family" and mother ~a / em means "the one that binds the
family together".
When we read the Ancient texts of the Hebrew Bible we
must remember that the words used are related to the
Ancient Hebrew culture and thought. We need, therefore,
to suppress our Western Greek minds, leaving them for
reading the Modern classics.
26 Giorgio Fano, The Origins and Nature of Language (Indiana
University Press, Bloomington, 1992) 66
25