Jump to content

Opinions On Biblical Hebrew Instruction Resources


JohnABarnett

Recommended Posts

I am 61, retired, and constrained in my focus, stamina and energies by health issues.

 

Nevertheless within the next few months I am going to embark on:

 

A. A home self-study review and relearn from the ground up of Biblical Hebrew. I do not have transportation to attend any classes. Many years ago I had a year of Hebrew in seminary. In the last 25 years I've done little with it, thus the "ground up" mentality.

 

B. At the same time work cooperatively with my son-in-law so he can get a jump on his seminary Hebrew studies. Most of all I'd like to help him discover a sound approach to hermeneutics and exegesis, something which often seems to be lacking these days.

 

Though I am not an accomplished scholar, and my sense of the field is seriously out of date, I gravitate towards a serious approach to any study, and though my convictions are conservative I tend avoid conclusions that are determined in advance due to a sectarian spirit.

 

I know there are lots of resources in Accordance, but my thinking at this point is to use "hard" resources (books, videos, etc.) for this project, and then supplement them with Accordance "software" resources when helpful.

 

My initial interest is in the "Learning Biblical Hebrew" package by Pratico and Van Pelt which includes book, workbook, video lectures, and several other accessories. I'm sure there are varied opinions on what is in 2016 the best program of study, but I'd like to hear from experienced people on this forum. Funds are limited, but I am willing to spend on the right materials if it is not exorbitant.

 

One thing I think will be essential for my son-in-law is a book that helps him learn some general (i.e., NOT limited to Hebrew), basic grammatical terms and concepts

 

Suggestions and comments are most welcome, even those that suggest an alternative approach to the one I've outlined.

Edited by JohnABarnett
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not going to make a comment on an introductory textbook, since I have clear conflict of interest. :-) And, to be honest, our textbook was not written for self-study, but for classroom use.

 

However, I strongly recommend using Gary Long's Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Hebrew (2nd edition; Baker). Here's the Amazon link: http://amzn.com/0801048745.

 

I don't agree with *all* of Gary's Hebrew analyses (e.g., his use of "pronoun" for Hebrew אשׁר and שׁ is painful to me), but the introduction to the general grammatical concepts, illustrated with both English and Hebrew, can be very useful.

 

Good luck.

 

* to be clear, I recommend Long's volume as a companion to a textbook

Edited by Robert Holmstedt
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi John,

If I had to choose a book for self study, it would be Learning Biblical Hebrew. I especially like the use of color to highlight language features. I would also follow Dr. Holmstedt’s advice on the link and “use Long’s book as a supplemental textbook.”

I think you should concentrate on morphological patterns, grammar, and syntax, and not so much on memorizing words. Vocabulary building continues throughout your life, unless you just want to memorize glosses, which might then just take five years or so. As you read, you will remember the most common words.

As for a paper lexicon, I recommend Holladay’s A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, which is an abridgement of different editions of the scholarly standard Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. It is much easier for a beginner to search for words in alphabetical order in Holladay than by root in Brown Driver Briggs. Then you could buy HALOT later in Accordance (and there are others).

I know some buy Bible software programs to cheat in their language study, looking up parsing, etc. Try to avoid that temptation; just use Acc to check your work.

Finally, read, read, read the HB. I have duplicates of a few important resources in electronic form for searching, using hyperlinks, and copying and pasting for writing. But, in the end I’m still just a reader, which is the best preparation for using a program like Acc and taking advantage of all of its features.

Best of luck.

Regards,

Michel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reply, recommendations and comments, Michael.

 

I forgot to mention that as part of my initial Accordance purchase a little over a month ago I bought the Essential collection containing a number of original language resources and added HALOT and Gesenius for OT work (I was familiar with Gesenius from my seminary days.) Thanks for the suggestion of Holladay's lexicon.

 

I completely concur with your comments about focusing on morphological patterns, grammar and syntax, by the way, as well as a generous amount of time reading the text. That is my intent. I'm not trying to pass tests, I'm trying to (re-) learn to read, study, and translate Biblical Hebrew.

 

I only got one year into Hebrew in my college/seminary days as opposed to Greek, where I completed two years plus a semester on Textual Criticism. First year language studies are baby steps that prepare one for the real work of intermediate level. I experienced that in Greek, and I fully expect it to be the case in Hebrew. I need to relay that foundation.

 

My immediate focus is on texts and other resources that I can use cooperatively with my son-in-law as a first-year Hebrew student with the limited background in English grammar. In my student days back in the '70's I actually knew a pretty fair amount about English grammar compared to my peers, but studying Greek showed me how much more I needed to know.

 

I appreciate your recommendation of the "Learning Biblical Hebrew" self-study course. I particularly like that there are companion video lectures.

 

Thanks again!

Edited by JohnABarnett
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For whatever it is worth, I am having success teaching Biblical Hebrew at a local Jewish Community Center with Rahel Halabe's Hinneh: Biblical Hebrew the Practical Way: http://www.magnes-press.com/Book/HINNEH+Biblical+Hebrew+the+Practical+Way.aspx?code=45-351094. Though it was not intended to be a self-study program, I think you can use it as such. For more information about the book and for sample lessons click here: http://www.hebrew-with-halabe.com/biblical-hebrew/hinneh-textbook/inside-hinneh/. I know Rahel personally. She is very sweet and helpful. So if you are interested in this program, feel free to contact her if you wish to discuss how you may use the program as a self-study: http://www.hebrew-with-halabe.com/getintouch/. I should mention that the prerequisite to this program is being able to read the Hebrew letters with vowel markers, even if slowly. If you are not able to do this, there are free online lessons and programs such as this one: http://www.behrmanhouse.com/click-and-read-free.

 

Regards,

Ryan

Edited by rblackwelder
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Ryan. Looks interesting. I have read and bookmarked the links for reference.

Edited by JohnABarnett
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for chiming in, Robert. I have bookmarked your textbook and Holladay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks ukfraser, bookmarked it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John,

You've received some really good info from the folks here. I'm reluctant to chime in as I don't have the credentials of the others. But I thought my experience might encourage you. My story is similar to yours. I am 63. I studied NT Greek in college, but had a year of Hebrew using Thomas Lambdin's textbook. IMHO, textbooks like Lambdin that push endless lists and binyan are more interested in Tiberian logic than reading.

 

The “Lambdin like” approach assumes that we will somehow transition from the dissection of the language to actually reading it. Granting that this might actually happen for a rare few when all the stars are aligned in their DNA and youth… For us 60 somethings, I doubt it.

 

Five years ago I was wrestling with whether or not I should put the effort and time into trying to read the MT as I was reading the NT, and the thought of revisiting Lambdin or Ross just about pushed me to LXX only. But two things happened to encourage me to give Hebrew one last go. I discovered Michael Heiser's video series using Futato (albeit greatly limiting the memorization and emphasis of lists; and in place of lists, demonstrating recognition patterns).

 

And about the same time I discovered William Griffin's (www.hebrewforreadingcomprehension.com). Griffin greatly reduces the emphasis on pointing! While pointing is used for pronunciation and I do 'see' the pointing and use it, it becomes secondary and background By marvelous happenstance, merging Griffin and Heiser, I was actually able to begin reading. I'm here to tell you this actually works.

 

So what I did was to commit to the process. And after a few weeks I decided to use Holmstedt's Ruth - A Handbook on the Hebrew Text and try it all out.

 

And that's it. After Holmstedt's Ruth, I went through Tucker's Jonah. After Jonah, I went through Garrett's Amos. In the meantime Ken Penner led a LXX reading of Isaiah in a year Facebook group. I joined it and read the MT along with the LXX.

 

I know that they always say to avoid the poetry. Don't do it! The Poetry is AMAZING! Accept the seeming oddness and awkwardness of it. Let it wash over you; don't fight it. It will become comfortable. Ironically, at some point, when you go back a read prose you will feel uncomfortable with 'all the words.' Prose simply cannot do what Poetry can do.

 

A side note… with all of this, I found myself thinking about the Tanakh differently and the robustness of biblical theology which drives the narrative into the NT. I'd never say that this couldn't have happened with a translation, but in my case, it hadn't. The Hebrew forced me to look at the text far more carefully than I would have otherwise. For example, working through Lamentations earlier this year, I've been intrigued considering it as the interpretive hub of the Tanakh.

 

I don't want to give the wrong impression. Although I'm comfortable with the text, I can't 'read' the MT like I can read the LXX. But that's where Accordance steps in. You can quickly do lemma searches and see how the word is used elsewhere or utilize Clines' DCH or HALOT and not be distracted from the text.

 

Here is the link to the Heiser course videos: (www.michaelsheiser.com/HWH.htm) That would be self study.

 

But he also has an online institute for ancient languages: www.memraonline.com

 

One last thought… If you are reading Greek, you might try what I do. As I read the MT, if I get stuck, my go to is always to read the LXX. Often times that is all the nudge I need to move forward. A side benefit is that you subconsciously develop a Hebrew/Greek thesaurus in your head. FWIW.

 

-David

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

David, thanks for the extensive comments and encouragement. I'll take a look at what you recommend.

 

Lots for me to digest and consider in this thread. It will take some time for me to do so. I really appreciate all the input.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Robert H. and David W.! I also benefit from these suggestions! A companion book is a must! I'm still using version 10 of Accordance for a while - I don't know when I will upgrade - might be Monday might be 2 years or 4 years from now. Does anyone more also agree that if imposing limits on oneself how much short-cuts one will or can use in (a) software(s) it may help discipline? I.e. to sit down doing things manually on the computer or with pencil and paper.
I agree about the lexicon suggestions: CHALOT works best at this phase. I move on from there then to HALOT and I'm not going to get DCH. Of course the wider use of manuscripts in the DCH is beneficial but I doubt I'll afford, if I would afford it many years from now then OK I'd put it into use as I will by then have taken several Hebrew courses but I know my finances so I won't afford. I have options what to use for the Old Testament: lexicons and related reference work. For the Hebrew text I still only have the old BHS-T (bought new 15% webinar discount) and Hebrew Sirach (from a sale), I just thought they would suffice for quite a while. Of course work is progressing on texts but when I do hermeneutics I'm much more dependant on my language skills for a few more Years.
I've used Lambdin as well as Swedish textbooks. I'll take another stab at Lambdin's Hebrew just because there's also a Coptic textbook by him. There's a new Swedish textbook in the works.

Late January 2014 I started out in a general Linguistics course. What I didn't like about the course was the big focus on the pretty difficult phonetic alphabet which was supposed to be memorized by heart. There were some other sidetracks as well. But particularly when it comes to Hebrew, not much when it comes to NT Greek, I've benefited from the Linguistics course and will benefit more by rehearsing the course. I did sell my Linguistic books but there's new Editions every now and then so I'll borrow the new Editions from the libraries when they come out. Luckily enough I'm "enrolled" in several universities most of the time, so I do have some access to libraries.

 

I'd be thrilled if I could avoid the (focus on) pointing a bit. It's something I have to learn fluently. Eventually that is.

 

In discussions elsewhere people have recommended Futato (which I have under a competing platform as it came with a not-too-big-at-all package I bought four Years and half a Month ago (not student discount, I would definitely not buy important bundles with student discount, ever, and would not recommend student discount if it means You get a hard time re-selling items later on) but if You get Futato plan to or quickly get something more before You run out of course material!

 

For any learning environment purposes I'd recommend software that pronounces the roots for You clearly, recorded by a scholar, so You can listen one word at a time. While pronunciation, according to my Hebrew teacher, is not what You have to know really well, I'd still suggest You always encounter several words You better pronounce. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi David Wheeler,

 

  I found your post very interesting, thank you.

 

  I will note that www.michaelsheiser.com/HWH.htm is basically a page of broken links at this point. I do not know if the material has been moved/removed deliberately (perhaps because MEMRA offers what looks like it might be the same material) or if something just went down.

 

  A question for you. Have you taken any MEMRA classes and if so what did you think ? It offers the first online Akkadian class I think I've seen.

 

Thx

D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few years ago I did Dr Heiser’s MEMRA course first year Hebrew which is based on Mark Futato’s grammar. I was a “false beginner” having already done a year’s Hebrew about 20 years previously at university (using Lambdin’s very comprehensive grammar), but had forgotten most things. Here are a few comments about the MEMRA course and Futato:

 

  1. For the MEMRA course you need bucket-loads of self-motivation. There is a schedule to follow throughout the year. Each week you watch a video that Dr Heiser has made based on a chapter of Futato, you read Futato, you do the exercises in that chapter, self-correct them (the answers are given in the book) and learn the vocabulary from that chapter. If you have any questions, you can post them in a web-based user group and Dr Heiser will get back to you. From memory (a bit vague, and things might have changed since) you couldn’t post questions using a Hebrew script, so any vocabulary items had to be transliterated – not a major problem to be honest). About 6 or 7 students started off the course that I was in, and I suspect I was the only one to finish it in that group. There were tests 2 or 3 times in the year, but again these were self-assessed – you’re given the answers, and the questions simply come from the Futato book in any case.
  2. There was a follow-up course which I did not complete. It seemed to have a looser structure based around translating 5 or 6 passages from the bible. I think that at the time Dr Heiser was looking at changing this course.
  3. If you use Mark Futato’s grammar make sure you get a second (or subsequent?) edition. The first edition has multiple printing errors which could lead you astray.
  4. Futato’s grammar is available in Logos – Dr Heiser works for Logos, and you’ll feel that link.
  5. There’s a cut down version of Futato in Bibleworks, but I didn’t find that sufficient for the course.
  6. Mark Futato’s grammar is very readable and user-friendly. In these respects, I think it is an excellent choice for self-study.
  7. Every grammar book has deficiencies and Futato’s is no exception. The biggest deficiency is that it really only covers a barest minimum of what is necessary to read Hebrew prose texts, and really I’m being a little generous here. It desperately needs a follow-on volume to cover things that a student is going to need to read the Hebrew bible. For example, in its description of the imperative, there is no mention of the form with paragogic-ה - a form which is quite common in the Hebrew bible and would confuse a student (and potentially mislead them) each time they met it in their reading.  I appreciate that every introductory grammar needs to choose what to include and what to miss out, but this one really does exclude quite a lot that students do need to know.
  8. Futato makes almost no attempt to explain vowel changes in Hebrew (e.g. when changing from singular to plural, absolute to construct form, etc.). The student is left largely in the dark about what has happened to the vowels in front of them. Of course the rules for vowel changes are quite complicated (who sails through exercises of pointing un-pointed texts at university?), but it is quite a major omission.
  9. There are no exercises to translate English into Hebrew; only from Hebrew into English. Of course, this area is one of considerable debate amongst those who teach ancient languages, one that I will avoid here. I simply mention it here for completeness sake.
  10. Doing any computer-based course, without a “live tutor” correcting you in real time, has its drawbacks. One drawback is that doing a course like this doesn’t really help you read the Hebrew bible out loud. If you do join follow-on courses in the real world anywhere, you’ll probably find that your fellow students are much better at reading out loud bible texts, even if your analysis and translation skills are on a par. I’ve gone on to do several years of Hebrew studies in various classes and I am still struck that my reading/pronunciation skills aren’t really where they should be – others are much more fluent than I am.

 

I hope this is helpful.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We used Ross (which is in Accordance). I think it's pretty solid. We supplemented it with George Athas' then unpublished Elementary Biblical Hebrew, which is now in print, but I'm struggling to find it for sale sorry.

But I think you could get a long way with just Ross IMHO.

 

Afterwards, by all means work through Holmstedt's Ruth - which is like the last section of Ross but you get through an entire book rather than sections of Genesis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Nick,  Thanx for that. Food for thought. The online teaching of language seems to be pretty problematic particularly with adult students with existing time commitments. Actual class time is difficult to setup, much less maintain. Thus getting practice reading out loud with a qualified instructor is hard to come by for adult students.

 

@Douglas, I have Ross and Pratico/Van Pelt and others. Once I'm through Buth I'll move on to those. Also could not find Athas even on Booko. Perhaps not a large print run.

 

Thx

D

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Daniel yeah one of the good things of being his students before it was printed was we just got it in instalments as handouts

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks all for the additional comments.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Daniel:

Yep. The link to "Hebrew with Heiser" is down.

I had asked him if he was going to leave the content up, and he said yes.

I'll check with him to see if it is moved or gone.

Sorry about that.

 

-David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One other resource I found very helpful was Timothy Saleska's iTunesU Hebrew Club.

It seems to be what he does at Concordia during their lunch break.

He reads the text in hebrew and translates on the fly.

And makes succinct random comments. I find it VERY good.

 

I have a couple of clients about 2 hours from me that I visit several time a month. So I will listen to it as I drive.

 

He's currently doing Kings. The podcasts date back 10 years.

The series includes Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Samuel, Micah, most of Psalms,... 

 

Listen to any of them and you'll see what I mean.

If we can move through the text like this, I don't think de-constructing the language will be such a concern. Recognition will happen. As you read you will find yourself 'predicting' what is next; and when it doesn't happen, you begin to wonder why he says it this way and not that way. I like to engage the text this way.

And, then if you are reading the LXX, you get to think about what the greek guy was thinking.

 

I'm not saying i don't see the pointing. I do. I just don't worry over how or why it does this or that. 

 

-David

Edited by David Wheeler
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, David.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...