Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Ronning <ronning AT ilink.nis.za>]

I'm quite happy to have run across Randall's beta version a few weeks ago 
and have been using it with my first year students (first semester on 
this side of the world).  I concur with Randall's comments on this 
subject and note that so far so good with using the material, which is 
quite excellently done.  The students are making faster progress that we 
did with a traditional appproach in the beginning.

I don't think the goal of using modern (living) language teaching 
techniques is to get people to be able to speak fluently in BH, but 
rather to help people get an intuitive grasp of the language (am I right, 
Randall?), which results in a number of intangible benefits such as 
increasing students' interest and confidence and ability to remember the 
basics (whether vocabulary or grammar and syntax).

The tapes are a great plus and make the course suitable for self study.  
One student I thought was going to have to drop out because he missed so 
many classes for personal/family/work reasons, came back after our 
mid-term break at the head of the class, largely with the help of the 
tapes.

I've long thought that teaching Hebrew should incorporate some of the 
same techniques that were used when I studied modern languages, and am 
quite happy that Randall has put together a package that saves me having 
to invent one myself (which I'd probably never have time to do).

As for whether someone can "know" Hebrew without the oral component, I 
may be biased, but if someone can't read a verse out loud without 
stumbling over every other word (typical student who has had two, three, 
or four years of Hebrew), I'd have a hard time respecting his exegetical 
abilities.

Something that I don't think has been mentioned yet for those who have a 
goal of "immersion" in BH: since one can't go to where BH is spoken 
fluently, perhaps the next best thing to do is to commit to memory as 
much of the Scriptures as you can in Hebrew.  (I assume this was one of 
the main "jobs" of the Massoretes). E.g. after I learned Hebrew I 
memorized about the first 30 chapters in Genesis; the purpose was to 
understand the theology, not so much the language, but I think a 
by-product is perhaps to aid in getting an intuitive grasp of the 
language.  I might add that if the 19th century source critics had done 
this, I doubt they would have come up with their wacky theories about the 
origin of the Pentateuch.

I do also think, by the way, that Bryan's grammar is also pedagogically 
well done and has much to commend it,and I also don't really have much 
against traditional grammars (I learned by Lambdin), but Randall's 
approach seems to especially help what seems to be a large percentage 
with a "mental block" for Hebrew.

Cheers,

John