Thanks to Chris Huff for his visual ”explanation” on what happens when two shewas are found at the beginning of a Hebrew word. Thanks for the creativity Chris.
Hebrew Vocabulary & PP Visuals
In an effort to help my class gain control of the vocabulary for 1st semester Hebrew I have created a power point presentation that links the Hebrew word with a picture. Here is an example of the vocabulary from chapter four of the textbook I am using: Basics of Biblical Hebrew by Pratico and Van Pelt. I am curious to know if other Hebrew instructors have found this helpful. Hebrew Vocabulary chapter4
Creating a Torah Scroll
One of our PhD students gave me a link to an interesting website concerning the making of a modern Torah scroll. There is a video and news article from The Dallas Morning News which explains the making of the scroll. According to the article it will take Rabbi Bloomenstiel 18 months to complete the entire Torah. Those who are interested may sponsor a day of the sofer’s writing for $180.00! Reporter Scott Farwell writes that a scroll would cost a congregation between $25,000 and $75,000!
“If you admire the violin…
The students I encounter at seminary admire the skills of their few classmates who are able to utilize the biblical languages (especially Hebrew). Sometimes the student who acquires the needed tools is looked upon by his fellows as a special someone, especially gifted in language acquisition. Language teachers on the other hand know that there are few, truly gifted students. Those who are successful (i.e. actually use the biblical languages) are those who diligently labor at building those skills. While these students are not more gifted in learning the language, they are more willing to work through the frustrations that come with studying any non-native tongue. I came across a quote recently that illustrates this point beautifully.
I was listening to an audio book entitled The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music. It is a true story about the relationship between a LA Times reporter, Steve Lopez, and a homeless man, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, who was a Julliard trained musician. Ayers, a gifted double bassist at the prestigious music school in the ‘70’s, was diagnosed with schizophrenia during that time. After decades of failed treatments and therapies, Ayers found his way to the streets of skid row playing classical music for hours in a LA tunnel.
Since music held some semblance of reality for Ayers, Lopez thought that he could help him through his mental illness by asking this homeless musical talent for violin lessons. The results were frustrating at best for the sane reporter. Lopez was frustrated with the size of the instrument, the awkward placement of it under his chin, and the closeness of the individual strings. He was frustrated with the inability of his body to do two things at one time: play a certain note with his left hand and at the same time slide the bow with his right. Since his fingers were not use to playing, equally frustrating was the pain that accompanied any note he attempted to play. Totally frustrated with his lesson, Lopez complained to his mentally ill teacher. In a fleeting moment of lucidness Ayers responded, “If you admire the violin, you will weather the frustration.”
What is true for music, I think, is true in biblical language acquisition as well. “If you admire the use of Hebrew (or Greek), you will weather the frustration.”
Preaching the Song of Songs
Anyone interested in preaching the Song of Songs (SoS) needs to read the concerns of John MacArthur. MacArthur’s four-part series is entitled “The Rape of Solomon’s Song.” MacArthur raises some issues that should be in the forefront of the preacher’s mind as he crafts his message for his particular audience concerning the SoS. However, the impetus for the articles is really, in MacArthur’s own words, the “crass” preaching of Mark Driscoll (see some transcript excerpts of Driscoll’s sermon here).
While Driscoll may go where angels fear to tread and incur MacArthur’s censure, one wonders how MacArthur would exposit such a text that is deep in metaphor and needs to be explained (carefully and sensitively) for a contemporary audience to understand this portion of God’s word and apply it to their lives. While MacArthur refers those who ask that question to his study Bible as an example of how he would expound the text of the Song (part 3), surely that is not all he would say in a message. If he did, one wonders why he would skip SoS 7:2-5 without any comments entirely (The MacArthur Study Bible, 949)! While Driscoll may read (and explain) too much into that most intimate scene, MacArthur errs by saying nothing.
I am at a loss to know how to preach the SoS by following MacArthur’s example in his study Bible or his premise that the Song “speaks in secret terms about that which should be kept secret” (part 2).
Practicing Hebrew with Jonah
A colleague shared a particularly good website for beginning Hebrew students. At Animated Hebrew the book of Jonah is printed (and read) in a comic book format.
This is a summary from the site: “Every word of the Hebrew text is included in this Jonah comic in multiple scripts (square, cursive, paleo-Hebrew) and multiple forms (consonantal, pointed, cantillated). You can also listen to my slow, deliberate read of the Hebrew text, and pause or repeat at any time. At the bottom of the screen you’ll find ancient and modern translations that you can compare with the Hebrew text (Aramaic, Syriac, Greek, Latin, German, French, and 3 English translations). This comic is a great way to learn or practice your biblical Hebrew.”
This is a helpful site where I will be sending my students. Thanks to those at Animated Hebrew!
Hebrew Vocabulary
For those interested in mastering their Hebrew vocabulary The University of Auckland (New Zealand) has a Biblical Hebrew vocabulary website that provides a multimedia environment to help students with their vocabulary. Students are able to see the Hebrew, hear the Hebrew (most of them), watch the Hebrew being written in order with vowels and see the Hebrew word in a simple sentence.
This is a helpful site.
Appreciating the Original Languages
There should be no excuse for not appreciating the Bible in its original languages. I came across this quote while listening to an audio recording of the book, Mayflower.
The last days of Bradford’s life were spent in what might seem a strange pursuit of a governor of a New England colony—studying Hebrew. He yearned to have as a direct connection as possible with the word of God and to do that he must learn the language in which the Bible was originally written. The initial pages of his Plymouth history are filled with a doodle-like scrawl of Hebrew words and phrases. “Though I am grown aged,” he wrote, “yet I have had a longing desire to see with my own eyes something of that most ancient language and holy tongue in which the law and oracles of God were written and though I cannot attain too much herein, yet I am refreshed to have seen some glimpse here of, as Moses saw the land of Canaan afar off.”
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick copyright 2006. Transcribed from an audio recording disc 6 track 15.
