Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Wednesday 25 June 2003 17:46, Trevor & Julie Peterson wrote:
> Dean wrote:
> > Well, I speak spanish and english and I would like to learn Hebrew not
> > only
> > for conversation, but i'd like to be able to read my bible in Hebrew
>
> as
>
> > well, to get somewhat of a deeper understanding....
>
> If you're interested in conversational Hebrew, I would recommend that
> you start with Israeli Hebrew. Like any other modern language, you can
> learn to speak it through using tapes or taking courses. (You can very
> likely find an Ulpan program in your area, perhaps if you check with
> some local synagogues or a Jewish school.) The modern language is quite
> different from Biblical Hebrew, but not so different that you could not
> move from one to the other with relative ease. The advantage to doing it
> that way is that you would acquire some spoken fluency before trying to
> read biblical texts. 

[snip]
IMNSHO it depends on which you want more, the biblical reading or the 
conversational.  I never really thought about conversational (Israeli) Hebrew 
until I had been reading biblical Hebrew for many years, and I found that my 
understanding of biblical Hebrew really helped me with conversational Hebrew 
because I already had some idea about structure, pronunciation and 
vocabulary.  So either way, one is likely to help in the learning of the 
other.  The question I guess, Dean, is which kind is more primary for your 
personal goals?

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"God does a lot of things in the Psalms
that He can't get away with in systematic theology."