This question may sound laughable to many of you but I really would
like to know the question.

What is the difference, if any, between the Greek and Hebrew written
in the Christian Bible and that of modern Greek and Hebrew?  In other
words could a Greek or Hebrew speaking person living two thousand
years ago understand the modern Greek or Hebrew today?  Alternativly,
can someone who knows modern Greek or Hebrew read and clearly
understand the Greek and Hebrew from biblical times without the help
of any language aids?

Again, I understand this question is probably somewhate insane but I
am confused on the matter.

Thank you,
Michael

Hi,

Let's start with the Greek.  It is interesting you chose the biblical
translation rather than an ancient translation.  Since you did
however, let's stay with the Gospels, and I will supply you with some
links below so you can follow up into the ancient if you wish.

First of all we have to remember who is writing the four Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not "learned" men.  That they were
literate is obvious, but writing at a literary level wouldn't be a
given skill for someone in their social standing.  The type of Greek
used in this time period was called Koine and was differentiated into
two groups, literary Koine and the vernacular, or popular, tongue. 
The Gospels are written in using the vernacular, which was less
influence by classical reminiscences or by the new developments
Hellenistic thought.  Borrowing freely from a Middle Eastern
vocabularies, the common vernacular suffered severely in a breakdown
of traditional grammar.  The four Gospels of the New Testament are
written in this vernacular Koine and shows form which has a strong
Semitic admixture. This can be thought of as a heavy slang.  Later
church fathers wrote in a stronger literary type language.

Present day Greek for common usage (novelist, poets, newspapers), use
a vernaclular type of Greek, but the 19th century vernacular has a
stronger grammar and is cleaner in "slang" areas.  So while it
wouldn't be quite like learning, or reading a completely different
language to the modern Greek, they would be scratching their heads,
and probably grasping for dictionary quite often.

MSN Learning & Research Greek Language
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=761552508#endads

GREEK, Ancient
http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~bjoseph/articles/gancient.htm

"Overall the changes, particularly if those of pronunciation are
ignored are far less than the differences between say Latin and
Italian. For a number of reasons, Greek is more resistant to change
than most languages. In matters of language Greeks have always looked
back to the past. In classical Athens the words of Homer were revered
and at the time of the development of the koine, many looked to the
excellence of the Attic prose of writers such as Plato as their model.
The koine itself was later, as the language of the Gospels, to become
a model. To grossly oversimplify, it is probably fair to say the
difference between Plato?s Greek and that of the present day parallels
the difference between the English of Chaucer (c.1340-1400) and modern
English."
From: The Greek Language
http://www.translexis.demon.co.uk/new_page_2.htm

Learning the Greek Language
http://www.geocities.com/tmartiac//thalassa/grlang.htm


The Hebrew language is a bit more dicey, and the comparisons between
the modern usage of Hebrew as it is spoken in Israel today are more
pronounced.  It is still not another language, but knowing modern
Hebrew would not at all prepare you to read the Old Testament in its
original syntax and expect to get everything right. The phonology has
been simplified, and new syntactic patterns and vocabulary have been
developed to express concepts not dreamed of two thousand years ago.
But the modern language is unmistakably the descendant of the language
of the Psalms and the prophets.

Bibles
http://www.otgateway.com/bibles.htm

Differences Between Ancient and Modern Hebrew
http://www.biblicalresources.info/pages/hebrew/dif_bet_mh_and%20bh.html


Searches
Hebrew +"Old Testament Hebrew" +"Differences between Modern Hebrew"
+"Biblical Greek" +"Modern Greek"

thanks, 

webadept-ga

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Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 15 Jan 2003 14:45 PST

Oh, to add to this, your question was more to the option of those
people back then reading or listening to the languages of today, and
this would be much more troublesome, and the learning curve far
greater. Both languages today use concepts, meanings and points of
reference that have no basis to build on in the older tongues. Just
listening to a news broadcast, for either of them would be a basic
impossibility. The gap is too wide. But it wouldn't sound completely
foreign to them, and would probably be rather confusing, like
listening to someone speak English but not saying anything you
understood. If you've seen the Gold Member movie there is a part where
father and son are talking in "real English" and there are subtitles
for what they are saying. All the words, by themselves sound like you
should know what they mean, but you are completely lost anyway.

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Request for Answer Clarification by michaeln-ga on 15 Jan 2003 20:15 PST

Your answer was very helpful.  

For another $10.00

You mentioned that it was interesting I chose the biblical translation
rather than the ancient translation.  Honestly, I did not
differentiate between the two.  My mistake.  How would your answer
have changed had I asked for ancient rather than biblical?

Thanks again,
Michael

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Clarification of Answer by webadept-ga on 15 Jan 2003 21:10 PST

Oh wow.. wish I could give that tip back, and I wish you wouldn't have
closed the question yet. In the future, wait until the researcher has
answered all your Clarification requests before rating and closing.

The reason I thought it was "interesting" was that both (biblical and
current) were common vernacular, adjusting for the "slang" and
dialect, but basically the same thing. Most people believe the Gospels
were written in the literary Koine, since that is what most of the
rest of literature is written in. So the question was basically "well
aimed" and not "insane" at all, and rather interesting to answer. That
was all I really meant about the comment, and to draw attention to the
different types of Greek.

I'm glad you liked the answer, and I'm rather embarassed about the
lack of being able to say something equally as "interesting" about
your clarification.

webadept-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by michaeln-ga on 16 Jan 2003 05:09 PST

Sorry, 

I was unaware the rating would close the ticket.  Your help has been
very helpful to say the least.

This answer was very helpful to me.  Thank you.