4 ms·

Israeli here, forget what they tell you about the so called "startup nation", the most amazing (and frankly, the only) thing about being Israeli is that I'm abl

Israeli here, forget what they tell you about the so called "startup nation", the most amazing (and frankly, the only) thing about being Israeli is that I'm able to read the text in the images. (And "thanks" to mandatory bible studies I could more-or-less place them without reading the english description)

danarmak 10y ago
What do you mean, what's unique about that? Lots of people can read 2000-year-old Latin and Greek inscriptions, too. Biblical Hebrew is probably more similar to modern Hebrew than late-classical Latin is to modern Italian, but it's not that similar. I don't know about Greek, but someone on Quora says that "a speaker of modern Greek can usually get the gist of an ancient text, although trying to translate may often lead to tragic misinterpretations". I'm an Israeli too, and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't taken those mandatory classes, and encountered Biblical Hebrew today for the first time, I wouldn't really understand it. Back in highschool, we had to use a commentary/thesaurus/teacher all the time.
- jimmytucson 10y ago
  What is so remarkable about that is the Israelites' language and culture remains in tact despite repeated conquering and the death of their state over 2500 years ago. Normally, when a state is conquered, they relinquish their gods and language for their conquerors' but this didn't happen to the Israelites. In fact, quite the opposite - their culture still thrives and remains the most influential by far of any other small, ancient near-Eastern tribe. (Very unfair comparison to a humongous military and financial empire like Rome or Greece.)
  - lostlogin 10y ago
    > Normally, when a state is conquered, they relinquish their gods and language for their conquerors /< There are more instance of this not happening than happening that I can name. I find it more impressive how much survived despite being repeatedly targeted and murdered for it over the following 2+ millennia.
  - toyg 10y ago
    "Greece" was never a "humongous military and financial empire". There were alliances between city-states of various sizes and what, from a distance, can look like a relatively homogenous culture -- which, in fact, was anything but.
    - emodendroket 10y ago
      Isn't that a reasonable description of the Hellenistic states succeeding Alexander?
- duaneb 10y ago
  There is so much Ancient Greek its hard to paint them all with the same brush. Koine (biblical) Greek is very simple and a modern speaker can get the gist, but polyphonic Greek in the flavor of Sappho or the Iliad would be very, very difficult for a modern speaker to understand. Meanwhile, the Torah is still taught in full, in (roughly) the original; it is not at all surprising someone can still read it fully with modern education.
- robbyt 10y ago
  I've studied modern Greek, and have visited many museums with native Greeks... and empirically I can say that reading ancient Greek (in the many variations) is very difficult to understand for most speakers of modern Greek.

danarmak 10y ago

What do you mean, what's unique about that? Lots of people can read 2000-year-old Latin and Greek inscriptions, too. Biblical Hebrew is probably more similar to modern Hebrew than late-classical Latin is to modern Italian, but it's not that similar. I don't know about Greek, but someone on Quora says that "a speaker of modern Greek can usually get the gist of an ancient text, although trying to translate may often lead to tragic misinterpretations". I'm an Israeli too, and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't taken those mandatory classes, and encountered Biblical Hebrew today for the first time, I wouldn't really understand it. Back in highschool, we had to use a commentary/thesaurus/teacher all the time.

jimmytucson 10y ago
What is so remarkable about that is the Israelites' language and culture remains in tact despite repeated conquering and the death of their state over 2500 years ago. Normally, when a state is conquered, they relinquish their gods and language for their conquerors' but this didn't happen to the Israelites. In fact, quite the opposite - their culture still thrives and remains the most influential by far of any other small, ancient near-Eastern tribe. (Very unfair comparison to a humongous military and financial empire like Rome or Greece.)
- lostlogin 10y ago
  > Normally, when a state is conquered, they relinquish their gods and language for their conquerors /< There are more instance of this not happening than happening that I can name. I find it more impressive how much survived despite being repeatedly targeted and murdered for it over the following 2+ millennia.
- toyg 10y ago
  "Greece" was never a "humongous military and financial empire". There were alliances between city-states of various sizes and what, from a distance, can look like a relatively homogenous culture -- which, in fact, was anything but.
  - emodendroket 10y ago
    Isn't that a reasonable description of the Hellenistic states succeeding Alexander?
duaneb 10y ago
There is so much Ancient Greek its hard to paint them all with the same brush. Koine (biblical) Greek is very simple and a modern speaker can get the gist, but polyphonic Greek in the flavor of Sappho or the Iliad would be very, very difficult for a modern speaker to understand. Meanwhile, the Torah is still taught in full, in (roughly) the original; it is not at all surprising someone can still read it fully with modern education.
robbyt 10y ago
I've studied modern Greek, and have visited many museums with native Greeks... and empirically I can say that reading ancient Greek (in the many variations) is very difficult to understand for most speakers of modern Greek.