Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Billy Evans <biblewje AT comcast.net>]

on 1/20/03 6:55 AM, Charles David Isbell at cisbell AT cox.net wrote:

> Dear Peter and List,
> Peter, I have great respect for your work.  I do find it a bit strained that
> you accuse Clay of giving an emotional response just before you close with
> the following rhetorical question: "Could it be that the Semitic language
> specialists have a vested interest in keeping Hebrew and other Semitic
> languages hard to learn so that they can perpetuate their intellectual
> elitism?"
> Now, Peter, I am currently in my 36th year of trying my best to make Hebrew
> learn-able, and over the years more than 90% of my University students have
> been Christians whose goals are very much like what you described ["to learn
> because knowing Hebrew is a useful tool
guys:

Back in 1985 when driving my family to Harding Grad school during my first
week in seminary, my wife would sit in the front seat grading Spanish exams.
As we drove to our schools I would verbalize both the Greek and Hebrew
alphabets and go through an exercise of counting to ten in both languages.
My son was in the first grade and my daughter 16 months younger and sat in
the back seat.  After one week doing this, my kids asked me from the back
seat of the Ford why it was taking me so long to learn this stuff?  As I
tested them, both replied in both languages and performed both exercises
perfectly!  I popped buttons off my shirt!  ...and then wondered if I had
what it took to do graduate work!

A few weeks later both kids could write both alphabets and give the entire
Greek verbal system in less than five minutes.  I don't know what this means
to the discussion we are having on this list, but I have had second guesses
about how to learn a language since I have reflected on that week in the
family car eighteen years ago.  I recently wrote a phonological vocabulary
for Hebrew Students (mainly for rabbinic students) since knowing the choices
the reader can see when he/she reads the words in a text is an imperative in
this exegetical tradition.  Of course, it enables one to fly in the BHS.  I
know this since the ancient near east students remained first grade types
during our four years at HUC.  Anyway, I originally composed this list for
my own slow learning. I used to master every choice a rabbi might use when
attempting to see a word of the Torah from all sides.   Zondervan was going
to publish it but I backed away due to health problems and now Baker wants
to look at it.  Question to the list:  Is learning Hebrew this well worth
the time to most people who would use Hebrew?  Frankly I thought it made
learning faster for me, but we have already seen I must be a different kind
of learner if my first graders can learn quicker than me.

Thanks for any in
-- 
William "Billy" J Evans Jr-Nashville
Doctorate Rabbinics, Dead Sea Scrolls, Targums at Hebrew Union College
Doctorate in NT at University of So. Africa
put