Ben-Yehuda's revival of Hebrew

LINGUISTIC RESURRECTION: Digging Up Hebrew. The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language has been given supernatural terms like ‘resurrection’ and ‘miracle,’ but how ‘scientific’ was it? (Ryan Malone, Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology, from the November-December 2025 Let the Stones Speak Magazine Issue).

A 1952 English book by Robert St. John, now out of print, offers incredible detail on this process and the man called Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. In Tongue of the Prophets, St. John conveyed what he learned from a biography written in Hebrew by Eliezer’s widow.

Ben-Yehuda’s work not only benefited the establishment of “Israel,” it also served as a mighty support to the archaeological work that would come in the years to follow. Biblical archaeology without a nation of Hebrew speakers seems impossible to imagine.

Additionally, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was himself an archaeologist—of a linguistic sort. The kind of rigorous work he did, the scientific standards to which he adhered, are relatable to anyone leading an excavation. And they make the product of his life’s devotion all the more worthy of the highest esteem.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.