Hebrew (language)
Hebrew was an Earth language, the tongue of the Jews. (PROSE: Asylum) It was the language in which the Gospel of Mark was originally written. (PROSE: Byzantium!) Bernice Summerfield was fluent in Hebrew. (PROSE: Just War, Twilight of the Gods) Samantha Jones, on the other hand, when without the TARDIS's aid, could not speak Hebrew, Arabic or Yiddish. (PROSE: Seeing I) Ascaris claimed in a letter that the only reason he was rejected priesthood was because he couldn't handle the Hebrew. (PROSE: The Romans)
Salem Village's name came from the Hebrew world shalom, which meant peace. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters) Yud Kay Vay Kay — or, in Roman letters, J H W H — was the Judaic name for God. (PROSE: Asylum, Life During Wartime) Abiathar, as the Zoot noted to Jacob Abiathar Earl-Thornton, meant Father of Abundance. (PROSE: Earth) Beelzebub's etymology was Hebrew: ba'al zebub literally meant lord of the flies. (PROSE: Casualties of War) Emet meant truth. (PROSE: Life from Lifelessness)
By the 27th century, over 50 percent of the average human population had names derived from either "ancient Earth Hebrew" or Indo-European roots. (PROSE: The Glass Prison)
Behind the scenes
Several settings in the Doctor Who universe come from Hebrew words. They include, but are not limited to:
- The planet Sheol. In Hebrew, this means "underworld." Located within Sheol, ironically, is the city of Heaven. (PROSE: The Ruins of Heaven)
- The planet Gehenna. In Hebrew, "Geyhenom" means "hell." It was inhabited by Devil-like creatures.
- The town Gehenna. This has the same root. It would be safe to assume that the Jewish colonists who inhabited it named it after the Jewish hell.
- The colony planet Ha'olam. In Hebrew, this means simply "the world" and is the word used in real-world Hebrew to describe Earth. Judging by this and obviously Jewish characters in the novel (like Shoshana Rubernstein), it is safe to assume that the planet has Jewish/Hebrew origins. (PROSE: Seeing I)
- The name Abaddon, the demon trapped under the rift, sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for "doom", אבדון (Avaddon).
The song, "The Daleks"', repeatedly chants the lyrics "מה קורה," (ma kor'eh) "what is happening" in Hebrew slang, repeated over and over again. Though the pronunciation was different.
