Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 1/17/2004 2:04:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
dwashbur AT nyx.net writes:

> >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.
> 

______

This isn't really quite what I understand when one says "Think in X."  Yes, 
it's possible to read a passage in another language and not sit there almost 
(if not actually) writing down a translation.  Also, there are things which 
come 
to mind from reading in a language which simply come out in that language.  
Why do we say "Cogito ergo sum" rather than "I think therefore I am"?  
Because 
we learned it that way.  These are simply a library of phrases which we can 
call up on occassion.  I don't consider this "thinking" in a language.

gfsomsel