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.
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.
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