Free Association: A Land Without a People?

Monday, December 19, 2011

Someone posted this on Facebook. I thought it was worth passing along.

Tom said...: Sheldon,

Isn't modern Hebrew an invented language, as well? I remember Mises saying in Omnipotent Government(I think) that the ancient Hebrews spoke Aramaic and that only the clergy spoke Hebrew.; December 19, 2011 at 7:02 PM
Sheldon Richman said...: Here's what Shlomo Sand writes in The Invention of the Jewish People:

"In the second century BCE the rural population still spoke either Hebrew or Aramaic, most merchants communicated in Greek, and the governing and intellectual elites in Jerusalem spoke and wrote mainly in Aramaic."; December 20, 2011 at 10:08 AM