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Advice needed


kpang808

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Hey everyone, I have a question. Is the Zondervan basics of Biblical Hebrew and Greek a good way to learn the language? This would be a self study, the other approach would be tools based which a lot of seminaries and schools are moving toward (mine included). That is a course I'll eventually have to take, but there are some good courses that teach the tools approach.

 

What is your thoughts? Any feedback and experience is welcomed

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Yes, they are helpful resources. I think you can learn just by going along with the textbooks and workbooks. When I learned Hebrew, my professor used Weingreen's grammar (which, I, back then, felt like it was written when Israel got its independence :) JK). But, Basics of Biblical Hebrew helped me a lot. Now, if anyone asks me about Hebrew textbook, I suggest them to get a copy (if they can) of Beginning Biblical Hebrew: A Grammar and Illustrated Reader by Dr. John A. Cook and Dr. Robert D. Holmstedt.

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Hey Keith,

 

  I learned my basic Greek from Mounce's book via self-study. I got his companion video series and went through that. Get the workbook and do the exercises. The written stuff matters, particularly writing things in the language - at least for me it really helps drive it in. I'm working through the First Hebrew Primer right now (available in Acc) and you have to translate into Hebrew and such and it really helps. Alas, FHP seems to have a bunch of typos and such in places - been reporting them as I go - but it's basically pretty good I think - but it's got it's got its foibles - using non-standard,  suspect intended to be non-scary terminology for example. I've not yet started with Van Pelt but it looks pretty good.

 

  I don't understand what you mean when you say "tools approach". What does that mean ?

 

Thx

D

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Thanks for your insight! I realize how I worded what I wrote is pretty vague. The tools approach is basically teaching people how to properly use tools like Accordance for example to use the language. Teaching people the forms of words, how they function, specials cases, why it matters, etc. It is less about memorizing vocabulary and paradigms but focused on exegesis with the information you can glean about a word through bible software. That's as best as I can describe it. I'm leaning toward the Zondervan one more and more after talking with some people. Seems to be a good one.

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Mounce also likes to minimize memorization and that approach pervades his book. I believe Pratico/Van-Pelt take the same approach. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about it. In principle it makes sense and as I said that's how I did it with Greek, but reflexive intuitive understanding requires ultimately that you don't so much decode through paradigms but just recognise what you are seeing. If one can move from memorization of the paradigms to a full absorption of the material and internalization of it then fine I guess. I'm still working on that part.

 

I did not use Accordance while learning my basic Greek - pencil and paper. Hebrew is a little different though a lot of my initial stuff was also not in Acc. Now I have FHP in Acc but I use it as a text book and lexicon only really while reading FHP.

 

Thx

D

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Yeah I see what you're saying. I was planning on getting the video lectures to go along with the workbook and grammar.

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