Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 01/03/2004 09:37, Karl Randolph wrote:

> Peter:
>
> When I visited Germany some three decades ago, 
> the Germans were very surprised that I had 
> been allowed to study Hebrew without knowing 
> any Latin.
>
> The classical Gymnasium program was very 
> strict: first Latin, then after a few years to 
> be introduced to Greek for a couple of years, 
> only then possibly to learn Hebrew. But they 
> had already bowed to modernity in requiring 
> their students to study a couple of years 
> English. So here I came, even with only one 
> year of U.S. study of Hebrew, with better 
> knowledge of Hebrew than their students, but 
> no Latin.
>
> That’s why the editors of the BHS expected 
> knowledge of Latin. And it is this pattern 
> that is one of the evidences why I don’t 
> think the common people in Judea and Samaria 
> spoke Hebrew in the market, on the street or 
> at home.
>
>  
Thanks for your comments about Germany in the 1970s. But what on earth 
is the relevance to Judea and Samaria in the 1st century CE? Surely you 
are not claiming that Jews had to learn Latin before Hebrew?


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/