Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Barry:

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 6:20 AM, Barry H. <nebarry AT verizon.net> wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
>
> > How much of the Old Testament have you read in Hebrew? Even once cover to
> > cover? If you haven’t read it through cover to cover, we won’t hold it
> > against you, because apparently (from discussions on this forum) it is
> > fairly rare for even a scholar to have read the Old Testament through in
> > Hebrew (and Aramaic) even once, and almost unheard of for someone to have
> > read it two or more times cover to cover. I encourage you to do so, it
> > will give you more questions.
> >
> Very nice response, Karl.  My Hebrew professors (Groves, Waltke, Dillard)
> had certainly read the entire Hebrew Bible through multiple times, and it
> showed in their teaching.  One of my Classics professors, Steve Tracy of
> OSU, once told us a story of how he and some other graduate students
> performed a play of Euripides in the original Greek, which included
> memorizing essentially the entire play (4 actors playing all the roles, as
> the play would have been performed in 5th century Athens).  They had a
> professor come to candidate for a position who was lecturing on that very
> play.  Apparently, there were problems with his thesis, and the students
> were able to point those problems out, citing, from memory, specific texts
> in the Greek which the candidate had ignored or misinterpreted in his
> presentation.  The poor professor didn't get the job, and I remember
> thinking, "that's how we should know our Bibles, especially those of us
> privileged to have some skill in the original languages."
>

Interesting story.

The best way to know the text is to memorize it. My professor emphasized
that we should memorize passages in Hebrew; he recommended starting with
Psalm 1. Even now, when I go on walks, I break up the monotony by bringing
along an iPod Touch with the Bible on it, going over memory passages.
Memorization ends up being an intense study of a passage.

I remember the first time I read the text through in Hebrew, already
starting in the first chapter of Genesis, I came across unexpected forms and
sentence structures which led me to question: “That’s not what I learned in
class.” The fact is that many times those unexpected forms and sentence
structures were “wrong” according to what I learned in class. There were
many verses I did not understand, or worse incorrectly understood. There was
nobody I had to ask questions: no internet nor b-hebrew, nor anyone locally
who knew Hebrew. Even many times later, there are still verses I don’t
understand, but they are far far fewer. And there are still things that I
find in the latest reading that I hadn’t noticed before.

>
> And yeah, I've never read it through in Hebrew.  Right now my Hebrew is in
> recovery stage, but I do try to do some every day in the context of my
> English OT readings.  Greek is another matter, fortunately.
>

Ah Greek is a lot easier, especially if one limits himself to the New
Testament. For those of us who grew up speaking European languages (all of
us?), which would include modern Israeli Hebrew, we are on familiar ground
as far as the meanings are concerned, we have to learn only forms unique to
Greek.

>
> N.E. Barry Hofstetter, semper melius Latine sonat...
> The American Academy
> http://www.theamericanacademy.net
> (2010 Salvatori Excellence in Education Winner)
>
> The North American Reformed Seminary
> http://www.tnars.net
>
> http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
> http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
>
> Karl W. Randolph.