STEPS FOR LEARNING BIBLICAL HEBREW. By Roderick Graciano

Steps For Learning Biblical Hebrew


A Sequence For The Student Compiled By Roderick Graciano
http://www.tmin.org/tminpages/BiblicalHebrew_GettingStarted.html


1. Memorize the Hebrew Alphabet (Print version), and the sounds
made by each letter (p. A-7 in Section A of our Hebrew syllabus). Use
the Hebrew Alphabet Song (p. A-2, and audio at:
https://www.tmin.org/audio/Hebrew_Alphabet_Ditty.mp3 ) to help you
learn the consonant names.

2. Use the “Writing The Hebrew Alphabet” practice sheets (posted at:
http://www.tmin.org/pdfs/Writing_The_Hebrew_Alphabet.pdf) to help
you recognize the Hebrew consonants.

3. Start attending a Biblical Languages Fellowship where you can
study biblical Hebrew with others.

4. Memorize the 12 Hebrew Full Vowels on p. A-8. Memorize the
sounds that they make, and which ones are long, and which are short.
5. Memorize the four Reduced Vowels with their sounds (p. A-9)
(With Stephen Ng's mnemonics, you do not need to memorise but learn it the fun way Click here)

6. Memorize the 11 Hebrew Diphthongs (p. A-12). Some of these are
the same as Full Vowels on p. A-8.

7. Memorize the BiG DucK FaT Letters (p. A-15), and which three still
change their sound with a dagesh.

8. Learn the Vocabulary Words For Genesis 1.1-5 on p. C-5.

9. Learn about Reading The Sheva, when it is vocal and when it is
silent (pp. A-13 and A-14).

10. Learn the words for the Parts Of The Human Head (p. C-6). Note
that the word for skull, גֻּלְגֹּ֫לֶת , has a silent sheva, and so is
pronounced, gul-go-let (you should hear the relationship of this word
to the name, Golgotha).

11. Memorize Genesis 1.1 in Hebrew. There are two Shevas in this verse
(see top of p. A-9), and they are both vocalized (not silent).

12. Choose a means to help you look up and analyze biblical
Hebrew words. There are various options, all of which will require
you to learn grammatical terms (like qal, participle, etc.) and some of
which will require you to learn letter codes for those terms:

• The easiest kind of tool for this is also the most expensive: Biblesoftware, like BibleWorks or Logos, allows you to see definition and analyses of Hebrew words by simply holding your computer cursor over the word on your computer screen. The parsing information is written out so you don’t have to learn code letters. Their included lexicons, however, do abbreviate grammatical terms (like adv. for adverb).

• The old and clunky way to look up and analyze Hebrew words is to use Benjamin Davidson’s The Analytical Hebrew And Chaldee Lexicon ($20-$30 on Amazon). The grammatical information is all abbreviated in this reference book, so you see parsing information like, “Hiph. pret. 2 pers. s. m., suff. 3 pers. s. m.” 

• Another way, which constrains you to looking up words in their biblical context, is to use the Analytical Key To The Old Testament by John Joseph Owens. This four volume work provides abbreviated parsing information also (e.g., “Qal act. ptc. m.p.—3 m.p. sf.”), but once you get used to its system, you can actually read straight through the OT using these volumes alone, since they include the entire OT text in order.

• A free alternative is to use the Scholar’s Gateway word parser at: http://scholarsgateway.com/parse/ . This requires you to use a Hebrew keyboard (pictured on the screen) to type in the word (complete with vowels) that you need defined and analyzed. 

13. Learn the three inseparable Hebrew Prepositions on p. C-8.

14. Acquire and use a copy of Todd J. Murphy’s Pocket Dictionary for the
Study of Biblical Hebrew, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

15. Learn the Independent Personal Pronoun (p. C-10).

16. Learn the Vocabulary Words For Genesis 1.6-8 on p. C-11