שָׁלוֹם from Atlantic Canada!

[Thomas Dolhanty]

Greetings B-Hebrew members. I’m new here and looking forward to asking some questions and perhaps sharing some of my own discoveries in learning and interacting with the Hebrew Scriptures.

Before this century was very old, my wife and I decided to take an early retirement from my career in post secondary education in order to devote our time to a thorough study of our Christian faith. And that, of course, involved a thorough study of the Scriptures. Within two or three years of setting out on that journey, I included the study of Biblical Greek, and then of Biblical Hebrew as a part of my mission. And within about a half dozen years of setting out on our own journey we began to help others travelling a similar path.

I took courses in intermediate and advanced Biblical Hebrew at the University of British Columbia in 2010/11 and taught intro Hebrew to a small group of lay folks in Vancouver BC the following year. However, I discovered that to gain real fluency I was going to have to devote all my attention to just one language at a time. As I was asked to teach a course in intro Biblical Greek the following year I decided to set Hebrew aside for a season and focus my attention on becoming fluent in the Greek text of the New Testament. Over the past decade plus, most of my time learning, and helping others to learn, Biblical languages has been focused on Greek.

Recently, however, as my fluency in Biblical Greek is now quite well established, I turned my attention once again to Hebrew. Quite early on in my study of the languages I discovered the same thing that Dewayne Dulaney talks about in his 2024 review of the Aleph with Beth video series – that the grammar/translation/analysis method of studying a language – by itself – does not tend to bring you to a place of fluency. In those early years I also came across, and was arrested by, the comments of Randall Buth on the failure of typical Biblical Language programs to achieve fluency in its students. I had also met and got to know Dr. Martin Culy, a recognized authority in Biblical Greek and himself a very competent teacher, who encouraged me along the same path that I will call ‘real language acquisition’. I began to spend more time listening to audio narrations of the Greek text, and interacting with it in a real language setting.

Also, like Dewayne Dulaney, I found the Aleph with Beth videos to be a truly excellent and unique contribution to the study of Biblical Hebrew - and especially for lay folks. I have become a big fan of Andrew and Beth Case and of their personal dedication to the task of helping others learn Biblical languages. I found Beth to be an excellent language teacher and I can easily believe her when she reports that she spends about 30 hours of preparation for every 15-20 minute video! Though the videos may seem very simple at first, they are very well planned and executed. Beth clearly has a master plan in her mix of repetition and introducing new language elements. If you know Hebrew it soon becomes apparent that she's skillfully building toward an end. This was my chosen vehicle to kick off the revival of my Biblical Hebrew studies. I covered all 151 videos and 56 “Biblical Hebrew Easy Stories” over a period of about 3 or 4 months. I look back on it as an excellent choice of vehicles!

Nowadays, I am working on a project to produce a teaching manual (for want of a better term) to help students of Biblical Hebrew move from the basics into actually reading and interacting with the Hebrew text of the Tanakh. I am also acting as a resource person for several friends who are exploring Biblical Hebrew via the Aleph with Beth resources.

[Thomas Dolhanty]

This site seems mighty quiet! As I'm new here, I am wondering if I have that right? And if I do, I'm curious at to why that is? Is there really such a low interest in Biblical Hebrew? I Find that hard to believe! And all the mores so as I look at some of the past discussions and initiatives. Why then so little activity?

If there is genuine interest - I have to believe there is - it would be interesting to hear what folks are up to with respect to Biblical Hebrew activities and interests and initiatives - reading, studies, teaching, projects, current interests and so on.

[talmid56]

Welcome, Thomas! It has been quiet here lately, possibly because members are going to other fora, like Nerdy Biblical Language Majors on Facebook, or to the Discourse Hebrew sites. However, I still check in here often. Hope things will get more active. Questions are welcome.

[Thomas Dolhanty]

Thanks, Dewayne. This seems to me such a superior platform for serious dialogue re. Biblical Hebrew compared to Facebook! Though I'm new to B-Hebrew, I've spent quite a few years on the B-Greek forum and received much benefit from the dialogues there in the past. (In fact, I still automatically want to write "Greek" after the "B-" from force of habit, as I did in my opening sentence above! )

My interest in Biblical Hebrew is to be able to read it, and hear it, the way the first audiences of the various Biblical authors would have done - and to help others to do the same. Most of us are not grammarians, just as most of them were not grammarians. Thank God for the grammarians, and I do look to them quite often for help in learning how to 'hear' ancient Greek or Hebrew correctly. But actually interacting with the Biblical Hebrew text or Greek text is where I find most joy and satisfaction. And I love to see others achieve that experience too. Seeing that "lights on" moment in someone who has actually begun to function in Biblical Greek or Hebrew is worth all the effort in helping him/her get there!

A few month ago I came across some of Stephen Krashen's videos on language acquisition versus language learning and it really helped me to focus something which I've known by experience for a lot of years. Hearing someone like Krashen codify some of the experience and confirm it with solid research has given me a new impetus - and direction - to acquire Biblical Hebrew. And I think my favourite (Cdn. eh?) metaphor when thinking of this is the picture of the little child who wants to hear mom or dad read the same account of Goldilocks again, and again - exactly as he/she has heard it before. That, to me, is the classic picture of how we all acquire language! "Comprehensible Input" in an optimal language acquisition setting!

Love to hear what you're up to these days with respect to Biblical Hebrew!