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{{Short description|A specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies}}
{{redirect|Hebrew studies|the subdiscipline|Study of the Hebrew language|the academic journal|Hebrew Studies}}
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A '''Hebraist''' is a specialist in [[Jewish]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, at a time when Hebrew was little understood outside practicing Jewish communities.

The 18th-century British academy was rife with [[Pseudo-scholarship|pseudo-scholars]], [[Armchair anthropologist|armchair anthropologists]], [[Mysticism|mystics]], and "[[Enthusiasm#Pejorative use|enthusiasts]]" interested in the Hebrew language for diverse and polemical reasons. {{explain|What are example reasons for interest in the Hebrew Language?|date=December 2018}} Empiricism from; the linguistic and historical discovery of [[Sanskrit]], and the putative deciphering of [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyphics]] by some; along with archaeological insight into the ancient Near East brought major sea-changes to [[Biblical history]]. Interest in the Hebrew language grew out of raging debates over the historicity of [[Genesis flood narrative | Noah's deluge]] and other Bible narratives, and even whether Hebrew is the most ancient language of the world taught to [[Adam]] by [[God in Judaism|God]] himself. Some Hebraists held posts in academies or churches, while others were strictly amateur.

Some Hebraists proposed theories that the [[Hebrew vowels|vowels]] in the text of the [[Hebrew Bible]], superadded to the text by the scribal tradition, were a Jewish conspiracy to mask the true meaning of Scripture. As a result, a genre of Hebraic scholarship concentrated on running the words of the Biblical text together, removing the vowels, dissecting the words in different ways, and adding alternate vowels so as to give an alternate sense to the text.

==See also==
* [[Asian studies]]
* [[Christian Hebraist]]
* [[Hebraism]]
* [[Jewish grammatical tradition]]
* [[Jewish studies]]
* [[Middle Eastern studies]]
* [[Orientalism]]
* [[Semitic studies]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}
* Spector, Sheila A. "Blake as an Eighteenth-Century Hebraist." Blake and His Bibles.  Ed. [[David V. Erdman]]. West Cornwall: Locust Hill Press, 1990. 179-229.

{{Regional cultural studies}}
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[[Category:Hebraists| ]]
[[Category:Middle Eastern studies]]
[[Category:Asian studies]]
[[Category:Orientalism]]
[[Category:Orientalism by type]]

[[bg:Хебраистика]]


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