Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Fred Putnam" <fputnam AT biblical.edu>]

Like many other Hebrew teachers (I suspect), I feel the need to encourage 
students by 
justifying the time, energy, and money that they are going to spend in 
studying BH. Here 
are a few of the reasons that I suggest.

1. Because no two languages are isomorphic, translation entails compromise. A 
working knowledge of Hebrew suggests where some of those compromises have 
been 
made. I am not training translators, per se, but studying Hebrew should 
enable students 
to evaluate different renderings of many, if not most vv. This is, in fact, 
the final project 
in Hebrew 3 (elective) at Biblical. Using an assigned passage and assigned 
English 
versions, students compare all differences (not just semantic and grammatical 
choice, 
but including, e.g., paragraphing, and the type used for verse numbering), 
and explain 
them based on (1) the Hebrew text that they represent, and (2) the 
introduction to the 
versions. Students consistently testify that this is one of the most popular, 
enjoyable, 
and useful assignments that they do in seminary.

2. Studying Hebrew deprioritizes--mitigates the assumed authority of--the 
English 
"version of the moment" (see #3, below).

3. Studying--and even merely reading--biblical stories in Hebrew often saves 
us from 
gliding over the surface of the text. I.e., we have all heard biblical 
stories taught, 
preached on, seen flannelgraph (in Sunday School) and illustrated children's 
versions, 
so that it is difficult to even hear the story itself. Reading it in Hebrew, 
however, often 
causes us to pause and say, "I never knew that was there!"
        IMO, modern homogenized translations, which have passed through 
multiple 
stages and levels of revision, and especially the final "English style" 
committees, whose 
job is to ensure uniformity of style and reading level from Genesis to 
[Chronicles or] 
Revelation, trick readers into this sort of surface reading because the words 
(sentences, &c.) are easy to understand.
        In this connection, I read to the class "Readings", a poem by Czeslaw 
Milosz, 
which begins "You asked me what is the good of reading the Gospels in Greek. 
/ I reply 
that ..." He goes on to suggest that reading the Bible in its original 
languages means 
that we are "Compelled to be attentive ..."

4. Many of those who study Hebrew are preparing for religious professions. If 
we met a 
professor of French history who didn't know French, or a Russian literature 
prof who 
couldn't read Russian, or a medical doctor who didn't know the bones of the 
body, 
wouldn't we suspect their commitment to their discipline, as well as the 
quality of their 
work? Mutatis mutandis for Hebrew and the ministry.

[On the other hand, I warn them that Hebrew is not a pair of magic lenses 
that causes 
sermon outlines to leap full-blown from the text.]  :-)

I have a prepared bibliography of works on the benefits of learning Hebrew 
(and Greek); 
if you would like a copy, I can e-mail it to you as an attachment (MSWord 
2000).

All best wishes,
Fred
Frederic Clarke Putnam, Ph.D.
"Dominus illuminatio mea."

Professor of Old Testament
Biblical Theological Seminary
fputnam AT biblical.edu
215-368-5000x150 (office & voice-mail)