Biblical Languages: Balancing Fast Reading and Slow Study
Continuing my suggestions for maintaining Biblical languages skills, I want to discuss briefly the balance between fast reading and the more serious, detailed, grammatical study.
Most students who make an effort to maintain their Biblical languages skill–and unfortunately small percentage in my experience–set out on each passage of scripture to study the text as though preparing to face the professor’s interrogation. Some of you may have had relaxed Greek or Hebrew teachers. I had one in undergraduate Greek and one who covered both Hebrew and Aramaic when I was in graduate school who had high expectations of what you should know about the text. I remember quite clearly the day in Aramaic reading when I had correctly parsed a verb form, and then the professor asked me what it would be in a completely different stem, person, and number.
If you’ve had that type of learning experience with any of the Biblical languages, you may have gotten into the habit of lingering over each and every word until you hope you know every detail. There is a place for that, and when I’m teaching, I will sometimes ask questions like that especially of students who tend to neglect details. But let me point out that you didn’t learn English that way, assuming it’s your native tongue. Instead, you were exposed to a great deal of the language and absorbed quite a bit of vocabulary and structure before you studied it more formally.
Most people will face discouragement in their study of the Biblical languages if they proceed at the slow pace required to study out every form in detail. That is why I recommend dividing your time between some serious study, and a program of faster reading. Faster reading will require good tools, such as Bible software of various types, reader’s lexicons (Greek or Hebrew), analytical lexicons (Greek and Hebrew). These are not tools that most Biblical languages teachers will encourage you to use for class, but they will help you cover more ground and expose yourself to more of the language. Accompany these with good English versions, and your reading speed will improve.
Each person will have a different balance between these two parts of study, depending on your own personality and your goals. If you eventually want to be able to debate serious grammatical issues, you need to lean more and more to serious, detailed study. If you’d like to read devotionally, spend more time building your own speed.
