Sounds like a noble undertaking BJH1960. Don’t think I for one am particularly qualified to take part, although, I have just started a book, The Face of Water, a Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible. The author is Sarah Ruden. Ive just finished the engagingly written introduction and have started the first chapter. Im finding it a nice compliment to my Hebrew study so far. Kind of a less technical dip into the language. Ruden, defines the Hebrew and the Greek as languages of inflection, unlike English which is phrasal and dependent on word order.This is all new terminology to me!
I picked in up at the local library. Recent copyright 2017. Just searching under ancient Hebrew in the local catalog; came up.
That looks like a great book. I shall add to my ever-expanding list.
I’ve been meaning to you ask you about the Great Courses. What is the pronunciation taught for Biblical Hebrew? Do they use the Modern Hebrew pronunciation?
How long have you been studying it? What have you found the easiest and the hardest?
Well, thanks for asking!
The Sephardic pronunciation is taught in the Great Courses.
The hardest part is finding a block of time to dedicate and focus. Second, retention for thoughtful reference; so as not relying on charts. The teacher (Michael Carasik) uses the story of Balaam (Numbers Chapter 22) as a step into translation and for learning to recognize the forms he is teaching in each lesson. You feel pretty lost but it’s manageable. I would say memorization is one difficulty and learning the forms. Because memorization is the forms, right? Right now I’m studying how the vowels shorten and lengthen depending on the accent placement and the meaning; geez. In a funny sense too, pronouncing aloud so as to catch the vocality — without being disturbing to others. The course is really quite good. His teaching charts are gone over in the video and also printed in the guidebook. I have started looking for recordings, which can be found, but the pronunciation style as you point out can be an issue. I’m not that sure that there is a great deal of difference? I mean at this point in my learning, maybe not? Chabad.org is Ashkenazi, which I think is less often used for biblical.
Carasik’s Great Courses Hebrew course description states that of the grammatical building blocks (parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives) almost all are the same as used in rabbinic, medieval, and modern Israeli Hebrew. If that’s any guide.
I’ve acquired a text book in addition to the Great Courses course guide book. In that and in a final lesson he has suggestions future study; out of those suggested I chose Mark Futado’s Beginning Biblcal Hebrew, Clines, Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, and Goodrich and Lukaszewski, A Readers’s Hebrew (and Greek) Bible. The last one being a little ambitious, but the price was right. Coincidentally, and happily I found that Tamar Kamionkowski of ** you do not have permission to see this link ** uses the Futado textbook in her program. And her course is another option. I found TK by way of MC and his blog TheBibleGuy. He also has a non-active but still extant Torah Talk.
I guess the easiest part if just going at my own pace and happily exploring. I have begun to enjoy some of music offerings such as Deborah Sacks Mintz and Batya Levine and Joey Weisenberg in order to hear the Hebrew vocalized.
I’ve been at it probably close to 2 years. . .The key is enjoyment!
Jill, very impressive.
In the video, Dr. Barrick talks about the oldest student he had, who just happens to be my age (64). The first semester he got a D-, the second something like a B- if I remember correctly but by the third semester he got an A-! The key is perseverance.
Thanks for those book titles and the link.
Get Smart! Now that brings fond memories.
I’m glad to hear it’s Sephardic. As much as I like Dr. Barrick’s teaching style, and he does seem to be a natural-born teacher, I’m going to get confused out of my mind with a completely different pronunciation system from what I’ve so far learned. Also, I’d rather not have to hear about Moses writing the Pentateuch or that Job was written 500 years before Moses.
I went to the Great Courses’ page and was disappointed to see that they aren’t any longer selling individual courses, which is what I’d prefer. They do, however, have a Black Friday sale – 99 cents for the first two months and then $9.99 a month after, which I could always try.
That last link that Robert provided has a free trial and something you can purchase so that’s a possibility as well.
I think learning another language is less like trying to accomplish a difficult task once and for all than it is like beginning an ongoing relationship. Till death do us part. You have to fall in love with the process.
I’ve started a thread to begin looking at the similarities and differences between the Biblical languages and their modern equivalents.
This is a question I have. Not just the differences between an ancient language and its modern descendant but how are they still the same language? Is there a fundamental Greekiness that is shared by both Homer and Cavafy? There must be, right?
Not just the differences between an ancient language and its modern descendant but how are they still the same language?
Let me give this some thought. I’m a notoriously slow thinker and writer, so it may take me some time. Hopefully, it’ll be coherent. If it is incoherent, it won’t be willfully so. I’ll post it on the new thread.
BJH1960 said, I went to the Great Courses’ page and was disappointed to see that they aren’t any longer selling individual courses,
BJH1960, I just checked for myself. Not sure what you saw, but here is a link for the course. I was able to buy it for half of that, but the prices vary when the courses are on sale. Don’t see it much for less than what it’s going for now.
** you do not have permission to see this link **
I saw this:
“EXISTING CUSTOMERS: We no longer sell individual courses, but you can always access your past purchases to stream on the web from My Digital Library or with The Great Courses apps.”
I hope I’m mistaken!
Thanks for checking. I started the trial version of Biblingo but don’t think it’s going to be what I need.
I’ll likely see tomorrow if I can purchase it from the Great Courses. I’ll let you know.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
1 Guest(s)