Time to jump off-line for a couple of hours, so I can complete my Hebrew homework before class tomorrow night.  You can listen to Duane A. Garrett read our vocabulary words here:  LINK.

I made it to the sixth week of the Hebrew class I’m taking through The Bethlehem Institute.  It’s been a slightly different experience when compared to the Hebrew I class I took during my undergraduate days at Concordia University in St. Paul, MN.  The biggest difference is the grammar we’re using.  My first Hebrew grammar was A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew by Jacob Weingreen.  This grammar is great, but may be a bit difficult for some.  I remember that it started out teaching you many rules at the beginning.  It took quite awhile before you started translating anything significant.  In my current Hebrew class, we’re using A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew by Duane A. Garrett & Jason S. Derouchie.  This book introduces you to a more manageable amount of rules in a different progression from Weingreen’s book.  One key feature the students like in this book is that it got all of us working with translating Hebrew to English from the start.  This has been very beneficial for helping the students reinforce the concepts early on.  Unfortunately, we’re working with a prepublication copy of the book, so I’m not sure when it will be available for purchase.  Who knows?  Maybe this book will become for Hebrew what Daniel Wallace’s books have become for Greek.  If you’re interested, you can listen to Duane A Garrett read the vocabulary for chapter 6 here:  LINK.

I’ve made it to week 5 of the Hebrew class I’m taking through The Bethlehem Institute.  This week we’re on chapter 5 (Gender and Number in Nouns) in A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew.  There are a few less vocabulary words this week.  You can hear Duane A. Garrett pronounce the week 5 vocabulary words here:  LINK.

We’re now 3 chapters deep in A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew by Duane A. Garrett & Jason S. DeRouchie.  I’ve come to appreciate the accompanying workbook, which has had us doing translation since chapter 1.  Fortunately, our vocabulary grew quite a bit in chapter 3.  The sentence translation from chapter 2 was a bit dry as the only proper names we had were Asher & Shiloh.  You can listen to Duane A. Garett read the chapter 3 vocabulary words here:  LINK.  For an interesting look at the Aleppo Codex, go to www.aleppocodex.org.  Be sure to read the sections on The Masoretes & The Bible & Its Transmission.

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve actually made any flashcards. This brings back memories from about 12 years ago when I was at Concordia University in St. Paul. I’m glad my Hebrew class isn’t at 7 Am this time around.

Our assignment following the first week of class is to work through chapters 1 & 2 of A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew.  The chapters cover pretty much what you’d expect in the introductory chapters of a Hebrew grammar.  Chapter 1 covers the Hebrew alphabet and vowels.  (i.e. learn your letters, practice your writing, etc.)  If any of my readers should feel compelled to practice their Hebrew letters, I’d recommend that you download and print the Writing Hebrew Exercise Sheet Tyler F. Williams has available on his site. The highlight of the class was singing a Hebrew alphabet song by John H. Walton.  I’ve been scouring the internet, but haven’t been able to find a recorded version of the song.  So in its place I offer these 2 alternate songs to help you learn the Hebrew alphabet.

One of the features I really like about this grammar is that it already introduces 12 vocabulary words in the first chapter.  You can take a look at them in this slide show (IE Only).  You can also download an mp3 of Duane A. Garrett pronouncing the vocab words here.

Last night was the first session of the Hebrew class I’m taking through The Bethlehem Institute.  I wasn’t sure which grammar we’d be using, but as it turns out we’re using a pre-pub edition of A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew by Duane A. Garrett & Jason S. DeRouchie.  The copyright is listed as 2007 in one place and 2008 in another for B & H Academic, but I haven’t been able to find anything about an expected release date.  We have two instructors co-teaching the class.  I was excited to find out that both of them are Wheaton College graduates.  I’ll be in this class for 2 semesters and am planning on posting about my experiences with this class on a weekly basis.  The list of suggested textbooks for the class is below.

Textbooks

• Garrett, Duane A. and Jason S. DeRouchie, A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew (Nashville:  B&H, 2007).  (Pre-pub?)
• Garrett, Duane A. and Jason S. DeRouchie, A Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew Workbook (Nashville:  B&H, 2007).  (Pre-pub?)