Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Aaaarrrgghhh!

I hope this is not what Randall Buth is talking about when teaching
Biblical Hebrew. Whoops! He is part of the Cohelet project.

2009/6/15 Charles Grebe <cgrebe AT briercrest.ca>:
> I haven’t because it wasn’t offered but I do intend to try and teach that 
> way this next semester having freshly returned from a Cohelet workshop 
> (http://seminary.ashland.edu/cohelet/ ) with a fistful of curriculum. One 
> of the workshop participants has a summary of the workshop on his blog, for 
> those who are interested.
>
> http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/?p=1353
> http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/?p=1355
> http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/?p=1361
>
> שלום
>
> Charles Grebe
> Briercrest College and Seminary
> Canada
>
I’m not sure what sort of Hebrew that is, but one thing is sure,
Biblical Hebrew it aint.

I also downloaded the sample lesson #2 from the COHELET website, and
the Hebrew just does not feel right. It might be a mish mash of modern
Israeli and Biblical Hebrew. Some of the phrases are just wrong, for
example, XPC as a verb takes a B- prefix on its object noun or pronoun
in Biblical Hebrew, or if the object is a verb, the verb is an
infinitive. And is there any example in Tanakh where (L means “must”?
I can’t think of any.

I am tempted that were I to teach Hebrew, I would plop a Tanakh,
Analytical Lexicon and basic grammar in front of the students, open to
Genesis 1 and just start reading. It might take a month or more to get
through the first chapter, a week to get through the first verse. But
it will be the real McCoy, not some made up thing to ease student
entrance into the language.

Karl W. Randolph.