Comments on: How to Teach Introductory Classical Hebrew

By: Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspot » Blog Archive » Hobbins’s Helpful Hebrew Verbal System

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:38:38 +0000

[...] How to Teach Introductory Classical Hebrew [...]

By: learnfrenchwiththebible

learnfrenchwiththebible — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:08:19 +0000

Have you ever checked into the methodology of Randall Buth? From reports that I’ve heard, it is fairly successful.
http://biblicalulpan.org/
http://alefandomega.blogspot.com/

On a related note, in college, my German and French classes were held almost completely in German and French.

My koine Greek and modern Hebrew classes were held almost completely in English. The same was true with classical Hebrew.

But how many teachers of Hebrew have the fluency to be able to conduct classes almost completely in classical Hebrew?

By: Awilum.com » How to Teach Biblical Hebrew Verbal System?

Awilum.com » How to Teach Biblical Hebrew Verbal System? — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:44:14 +0000

[...] Tyler Williams on Codex [...]

By: Ken

Ken — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:43:55 +0000

From a student’s perspective, I can say I’ve actually really enjoyed perhaps one of the most obtuse introductory grammars on the market, Lambdin. I used Kittel to start but after three-four years of Hebrew went back to Lambdin and find myself, embarrassingly, learning lots! Maybe that means Lambdin is a better second year textbook but, nevertheless, any good Hebrew course needs to engage the difficult aspects of the language. We are not learning or teaching this language for conversational purposes nor can expect students will naturally improve their Hebrew through everyday conversation! In that way, it’s not like learning modern languages at all. Biblical Hebrew is not even a complete, functioning language with all the necessary vocabulary and our major text is a cross-section of Hebrew written over 400-1000 years and then vocalized by a bunch of Jewish scribes 500-1000 years after that. It’s simply impossible to teach Hebrew properly in the same way you would a modern language. I could see, however, the merit of starting students with modern Hebrew using Halabe type methods and then working your way back to biblical Hebrew as an archaic version of the former in much the same way students learn modern English and then throughout their education encounter more difficult, archaic English in the Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, or Beowulf.

By: Michael Lyons

Michael Lyons — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:37:28 +0000

I have taught Hebrew using both John & Rob’s grammar AND other grammars (supplemented with John’s work on the verbal system) and I have found the following:

It is no harder to ask students “Yes, but what happens when the perfect verbform occurs at the beginning of the clause?” than it is to ask “What does the magical vav on the front of the verb do to it?”

And the first has the advantage of linguistic support