ABSTRACT
The term 'loanword' is widely used to designate a word 'borrowed' from another language. The most important contributors of loanwords in Hebrew, however, according to most scholars, were the languages of the great powers of the ancient Near East: Egyptian, Akkadian, Aramaic and Persian. Of these, apart from Aramaic, Persian loanwords have played the greatest role in linguistic dating of biblical texts. In addition, occasionally Greek loanwords have played a part in chronological discussion. This chapter outlines the scholarship on Egyptian and Akkadian loanwords in ancient Hebrew. It deals with the question of Greek loanwords, and provides an extended discussion of the chronological significance of Persian loanwords in the Hebrew Bible. The subject of Persian loanwords in the Hebrew Bible is actually better described as the study of Iranian loanwords. Old Persian was but one of the Iranian languages. The biblical narratives are full of stories that detail the close interactions between Israelites and Egypt.
