With September just around the corner some of us are thinking about going back to school and others are thinking of getting back to our studies after a summer break. I am in the latter group. So my task is to decide upon a study plan. If you were going to start with the basics and grow from there what books or courses would you begin with and work through? Do you have a study plan for the next year? One of the things that is holding me back is no training in the original languages so I am thinking of including Hebrew or Greek in my plan. I was looking at a course that is on sale but the sales rep advised me that it required Hebrew. Where would you begin in studying Hebrew and Greek? Thank you for your wisdom.
Start learning the alphabets of both languages. You can use Logos of course, but this is so pedestrian that a simple printout of the letters with their names and your diligence to master them will prove sufficient.
The more you look at the words in a language, the more they come together. No one is holding a stopwatch over you. Just stay with it.
The mind of man is the mill of God, not to grind chaff, but wheat. Thomas Manton | Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow. Richard Baxter
For Hebrew, you can visit https://dailydoseofhebrew.com/learn/ The instructor is Mark Futato, and he uses his textbook Beginning Biblical Hebrew which is available in Logos https://www.logos.com/product/4228/beginning-biblical-hebrew He also has a Logos Mobile Education course which is a condensed version of the online course https://www.logos.com/product/56419/mobile-ed-hb101-introduction-to-biblical-hebrew
A sister site to DDOH is the Daily Dose of Greek, but I am less familiar with that one.
The Daily Dose websites are free of charge, but donations are very much appreciated.
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Cheaper than Futato and you get two great scholars teaching both Hebrew and Greek for one low price. Textbooks also available in Logos (purchased separately):
https://www.logos.com/product/34026/zondervan-biblical-languages-video-lectures
DAL
Michael Kinch: With September just around the corner some of us are thinking about going back to school and others are thinking of getting back to our studies after a summer break. I am in the latter group. So my task is to decide upon a study plan. If you were going to start with the basics and grow from there what books or courses would you begin with and work through? Do you have a study plan for the next year? One of the things that is holding me back is no training in the original languages so I am thinking of including Hebrew or Greek in my plan. I was looking at a course that is on sale but the sales rep advised me that it required Hebrew. Where would you begin in studying Hebrew and Greek? Thank you for your wisdom.
Hi Michael, I apologize that my response might not be quite what you expected, but I hope that it's helpful nonetheless.
If I could go back ten years, I would begin learning the biblical languages, starting with Hebrew this time, as real living languages.I would have saved myself a tremendous amount of time; resources; frustration; and slow, mediocre results. The results that I am getting now through Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are qualitatively and quantitatively different than strict grammar-translation approaches. As you reach higher levels of fluency, that enables you to expose yourself to more Hebrew (or Greek), which leads to only more fluency. I'd definitely recommend starting with Biblical Language Center's (BLC's) Live Video Classes—unless you can find a class that you can attend in person that spends about 90% or more of their class-time in the target language. BLC's classes and instructors are fantastic! And the new resources that they're developing are CLT dynamite. Seriously! I attended their Biblical Hebrew Pedagogy Workshop just this last June and am looking forward to applying what I've been learning to teaching a beginning Hebrew course this fall in my local church. The seeds were first planted about ten years ago, but I lacked the skills and resources to teach the biblical languages communicatively, even at a basic level.
If you or anyone else happens to be interested in BLC's Live Video Classes, they offer 10% discounts for referrals from former students. Their classes and resources are definitely worth the price without the discount, but it doesn't hurt either! You can find other former students on Facebook groups like Biblical Language Center and Nerdy Language Majors. Feel free to send me a PM on Faithlife as well.
Here's a link to an old post on the Logos forums where you'll find some past discussion, as well as links to a couple additional posts. You might also find this list of Hebrew resources useful. It's a collaborative list that's oriented toward building fluency (i.e., listening and reading comprehension, and speech and writing production). There's much more that I could add, although it's intentionally selective and not comprehensive. I do update it periodically. There's a Greek list as well, but it's definitely a gradual work in progress.
May the Lord bless you in studying his word through the biblical languages!