Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Saturday 17 January 2004 01:46, Karl Randolph wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Polycarp66 AT aol.com
>
> >
> > There are two points here which interest me.  I will mention one and deal
> > more with the other.  I can't imagine why anyone would ever attempt to
> > claim that they "think" in an ancient language.  I think it patently
> > false since there is really no way to carry on a meaningful conversation
> > in the language.  Modern Hebrew isn't Biblical Hebrew.
>
> But I do think in Biblical Hebrew.
>
> No, it is not modern Hebrew. I don’t understand modern Hebrew. As a cognate
> language to Biblical Hebrew, I recognize many lexemes, but the grammar and
> many uses of lexemes don’t make sense. It’s a foreign language.
>
> Biblical Hebrew, on the other hand, I can read without translating. Often,
> when thinking about concepts I read in Tanakh, the thoughts come to my mind
> in Hebrew, sometimes only a phrase, sometimes two or three sentences at a
> time. It is not carrying on a conversation, it is not even fluent, but it
> is thoughts coming to my mind in Hebrew without translating from another
> language. If that isn’t “thinking in Hebrew” what is it?

Agreed.  I do the same thing, both with biblical Hebrew and NT Greek.  On 
occasion I have caught myself thinking a Hebrew or Greek word or phrase in 
the midst of a conversation.  Once it even came out: I was talking with a 
person in Spanish, and at a particular point my mind switched to Greek and I 
finished a Spanish sentence with a Koine Greek (not modern, I don't know 
modern Greek or Hebrew) word.  The other fellow stared at me as if I had two 
heads :-)

The point is, it is in fact possible to think in biblical Hebrew, and there 
are many of us who do just that.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Insert clever quote here (or not)