Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>]

At 06:17 AM 6/15/2009, you wrote:
> --- On Sun, 6/14/09, Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no> wrote:
> > Because of their modern Hebrew background, it was
> > not as easy for them to learn Biblical Hebrew (the
> > subtleties of the language)
> I would strongly disagree that modern Hebrew is any sort of obstacle 
> to learning BH. I may or may not be alone in the following opinion, 
> but Hebrew scholars who are not fluent in the modern Hebrew are at a 
> serious disadvantage in this field.

Tony, I can only assume that you are not familiar with Modern Hebrew 
or Biblical Hebrew. The differences are significant enough to be 
problematic. I challenge anyone who knows only Biblical Hebrew to 
read an Israeli paper (or one who knows only modern Hebrew to read a 
Biblical or rabbinic text.) The problem is obvious and is much more 
then just vocabulary. The only advantage is that you already know the 
letter and vowel sounds, and feel 'comfortable'  with them.


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