What’s the best way to learn a new language? By approaching it not as a series of facts to memorize but as something alive, with a personality you can get to know and tendencies you can begin to predict.
Designed for long-term retention, Learning Biblical Hebrew focuses on helping students understand how the language works and providing a solid grounding in Hebrew through extensive reading in the biblical text.
- Introduces advanced concepts in a form accessible to beginning students.
- Focuses on historic patterns and changes that minimize memorization.
- Focuses on how the language works for long-term retention.
- Encourages mastery of paradigms from a handful of representative forms.
- Includes extensive translation from the third week of class.
- Prepares students for translation of unedited biblical texts by the end of first semester.
- Emphasizes reading comprehension rather than decoding.
- Promotes a strong oral component to enhance language competence.
Written for first-year and second-year Hebrew students, this grammar is laid out to present comprehensive concepts to first-year students and then to aid in review and deeper understanding for second-year students. Though written for Hebrew competency, Learning Biblical Hebrew is well suited for students with different learning styles and objectives.
The Learning Biblical Hebrew Workbook provides essential practice with Hebrew for students using Learning Biblical Hebrew.
A game-changing Hebrew grammar
Learning a new language can be challenging, and Hebrew is no exception. However, Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension: An Introductory Grammar is a game-changer known for making the process of learning Hebrew exciting for students.
The first four chapters effectively explain the structure and characteristics of Hebrew syllables and words to inspire confidence in the learner. And unlike many Hebrew grammars that spend weeks on end parsing endless verbs and translating basic phrases, students are reading the biblical text by chapter 4. Learning Biblical Hebrew also clarifies obscure Hebrew language rules. For example, the authors explain in detail the "historical vowels" of Hebrew, which helps students master the vowel changes that occur in Hebrew words when modified by suffixes and prefixes. The authors also provide the "why" behind the principles, which helps Hebrew make more sense.
Students don't just memorize facts but learn the principles behind the Hebrew language so that after learning to read Hebrew, they are more likely to retain it for the long haul. This method makes Hebrew make sense.
Learning Biblical Hebrew also covers all the basic elements of Hebrew grammar, including weak verbs. The grammar follows the traditional format of presenting strong verbs before weak verbs. (Students intuitively translate weak verbs alongside strong verbs from the beginning of the companion workbook.) The grammatical features presented in each chapter are explained according to the broader context of the behavior and patterns of the Hebrew language, though the student is only responsible to learn the core concepts of each chapter.
Most importantly, students will discover a love for Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible.
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