Courses

This class (Hebrew 1) and the subsequent one (Hebrew 2) are foundational courses to equip students to study the Old Testament (OT) in Hebrew. At the end of these two classes, the students will recognize basic Hebrew vocabulary and understand the basic grammatical aspects of biblical Hebrew. This foundation facilitates the students to pursue Hebrew Exegesis courses to further develop their ability to exegete OT in Hebrew. Learning a new language is challenging. Learning Hebrew in a modern environment is even more challenging because the sound and writing differ from most modern languages we grew up with. Learning Hebrew in a compressed timeframe online further compounds this challenge. To alleviate these challenges, the course has been tailor-made to orient students’ energy and effort toward essential components of Biblical Hebrew and language theory.

Knowing

• To understand how language makes meaning
• To understand the functions of language such as the interpersonal, experiential, and textual
• To recognize and understand key biblical vocabulary in Hebrew
• To begin to learn the grammatical forms/paradigms in Hebrew

Being

• “To present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15)
• To be a mature interpreter of Scripture as taught by the Spirit (1 Cor 2:6–16)
• To allow the Scripture to motivate, form, and transform our faith, worship, and Christian way of life

Doing

• To describe how choices in language affect the meaning of the biblical text
• To describe the functions of the basic grammatical forms in Hebrew and use them in interpretation
• To begin to read and translate Hebrew texts
• To interpret the biblical text meaningfully without committing common mistakes