Reminds me of the recent effort to translate the Tanakh (The Jewish Bible, Old Testament) into Hebrew, from Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is close enough to Biblical H

Reminds me of the recent effort to translate the Tanakh (The Jewish Bible, Old Testament) into Hebrew, from Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is close enough to Biblical Hebrew that its speakers feel reasonably confident in reading and understanding it. But their actual comprehension, in terms of the original meaning, is something of a controversial point. Modern Hebrew is in fact different. It's enough difference some academics believe Biblical Hebrew has to be translated to be properly understood; or at least approached as a foreign language and studied as such. That can be hard for people who understand it automatically (but perhaps incorrectly). Semantic shifts are the worst offender, probably. Constant and ongoing. For an historic English example, sensible. Able to sense. Sensitive. "He's very sensible." once meant he's neurotic or passionate. But it shifted in meaning "able to sense with wisdom" or something like that. Now it means he's wise. And a possible ongoing example: just the other day, a young acquaintance misinterpreted "I appreciate how you feel" as "I am happy about how you feel" rather than "I understand how you feel." (And since he felt bad, he was quite offended.). Native English speaker! The other 20-somethings in chat understood the meaning, but to use their words, that sense is "old-fashioned" and "formal". They've heard "We appreciate your business" and such their whole lives. Little wonder that sense is coming to displace the others.