Hebraist
(ˈhiːbreɪɪst)
[f. stem Hebra- in Hebraic, Hebraize: see -ist. Cf. F. hébraïste.]
1. One versed in the Hebrew language; a Hebrew scholar.
| 1755 in Johnson. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 55 A very learned man and a great Hebraist. 1883 A. Roberts O.T. Revis. viii. 173 The celebrated Hebraist, Gesenius. |
2. One who has the qualities of the Hebrew people; an adherent of the Hebrew system of thought or religion.
| 1879 Farrar St. Paul I. 26 St. Paul was a ‘Hebraist’ in the fullest sense of the word. 1887 Swinburne in 19th Cent. XXI. 423 This splendid poetic style..what modern criticism would define as that of a natural Hebraist. |
3. A Jew of Palestine, who used the Hebrew Scriptures, as opposed to a Hellenistic or Grecian Jew.
| 1892 G. F. X. Griffith tr. Fouard's St. Peter 62 [The Hellenists] were better prepared than were the Hebraists for the teachings of Jesus. |
4. One who maintains that the New Testament was written in Greek that contained Hebrew idioms.
| 1859 E. Masson tr. Winer's Gram. N.T. Diction i. i. 25 Various..scholars (the Purists) perseveringly endeavoured to demonstrate that the style of the N.T. entirely reaches the standard of classical Greek purity..while others (the Hebraists) maintained..that it exhibits a..predominant Hebrew tincture. 1906 J. H. Moulton Gram. N.T. Greek (1908) 3 The Hebraist went absurdly far in recognising Semitic influence where none was really operative. 1907 [see purist 2]. |