Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yitzhak:

On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 11:31 AM, Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 8:59 PM,  Dave Washburn wrote:
> >
> But let's take the analogy.  Do you know someone who recommends
> learning Beowulf without
> knowing Modern English first?
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
>
> If the only reason a person learned English is to read Beowulf, then
learning modern English would be of no help, except to access scholarly
studies written in modern English concerning Beowulf.

The only reason I learned Hebrew is to read Tanakh, which I have read over
twenty times cover to cover. I have yet to learn any modern Hebrew beyond a
few basic facts.

There are many people like me who learned Biblical Hebrew for the sole
purpose of reading Tanakh, but how many learn English for the sole purpose
of reading Beowulf?

Karl W. Randolph.