Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Edward Andrews" <edandrews AT roadrunner.com>]

To all:

 

William Sanford LaSor's "Handbook of Biblical Hebrew, vol.1(Grand Rapids: 
Errdmans, 1978, p.3:

 

"All learning is in context. The context, however, is not artificial, 
composed perchance by one who does not use the language naturally, but rather 
it is the actual language of those who used it as their mother-tongue. For 
this reason, I refuse to ask students to compose sentences in Hebrew. To do 
so is to impress errors on the student's mind. And, frankly, most of us who 
teach Biblical hebrew do not have sufficient fluency in the language to speak 
or write it."

 

I have noticed that most grammars I have used, work from Hebrew to English, 
not English to Hebrew.  However, Menahem Mansoor goes both ways.  Would the 
members of b-hebrew agree that, in general, most Hebrew scholars do not speak 
Biblical Hebrew or are able to take an English paragraph and translate it 
into Hebrew (at least not very easily)?

 

Edward Andrews