My Mother Reads Hebrew

One of my disappointments as an undergraduate student was being told by my teacher, and Old Testament studies professor, that most people had learned and forgotten Hebrew many times.  It’s not my intent to criticize him–he’s one of my favorite people, and an outstanding scholar and teacher–but I was disappointed with the low expectations.

The undergraduate Biblical Languages program I took had only two years of Hebrew available, an introductory year-long course and a year of Hebrew readings, but I managed to expand it by arranging a year of independent study, in which I followed the readings class again as they read different passages, and also memorized vocabulary, covering all words that occurred more than 5 times in the Hebrew Bible.

While I’m at it, let me recommend vocabulary memorization.  I have found three ways of massively improving reading in a foreign language.

First is just reading.  This is why I value “Reader’s Lexicons” at early stages of learning.  They allow you to cover a great deal of ground very quickly.  This is no substitute for seriously working over a text in some detail, but it does build skills.  Provided you don’t neglect studying other aspects as well, it will help.

But second is simple vocabulary memorization.  Even though memorizing a “gloss” for a word has limitations, if you combine it with the first method, you will soon learn to combine the basic, memorized meaning, and a more sophisticated definition nuanced by the context.

Finally, I recommend memorizing the actual text.  I was introduced to memorization at home and in a small Christian school, where I memorized chapter after chapter in English.  After I started learning Greek I began memorizing in Greek, then carried it over to Hebrew.  Since I often don’t get back to the same text at that level for some time, I often am not able to recite some of these texts without review, but I will remember specific words, phrases, and constructions even after the full text may have faded a bit.

But what does any of this have to do with your mother?

I’m glad you asked!  Aside from being the person who first taught me to memorize and love scripture, my mother has learned to read both Hebrew and Greek.  She started this at retirement, and during that year that I was taking third year Hebrew by sitting in with the second year class and doing extra work, she was taking her second year.  What a joy it was to sit with her in Hebrew class working through the scriptures in their original language!  (“Who’s that old lady learning Hebrew?”  “Watch who you’re calling old!  That’s my mother!”  A well justified retort seeing as she’s still going strong nearly 30 years later!)

After she completed that formal Hebrew training, she taught herself Greek with a little bit of help from me, and got to the point where she could work her way through significant Greek texts.

She is now 90 years old, and most times when I visit we’ll have some time to sit down and study some passages together.  She’ll have written up her own translation as she studied, and we’ll compare notes and discuss the language, the theology, and the application.

I can only dream of being a sharp when I’m 90 years old!

I try to balance a love for the original languages with the realization that not everyone has the time or the talent to learn them, especially if that is not part of one’s professional life.  My mother, for example, is a Registered Nurse.  Greek and Hebrew were not part of her daily life.

By lack of talent I do not mean stupidity either.  Most of us find some activities quite challenging.  I’ve encountered the idea that if one learns Greek (or Hebrew), one must be able to do anything.  Occasionally, when I’m challenged by a task that’s outside my talents, and someone is pushing me, I’ll tell them, “You go learn Greek, and then I’ll try this again.”  Usually they get the point.

But for those, like my mother, who can make the time, your going to find such a study very rewarding.  There are many means of helping you get close without knowing the languages, but in kissing and great literature, “close” and “touching” are by no means equivalent.

This post was inspired by John Hobbins’ post Why it is important not to love the God of the Bible.  John has some other very important points to make in that post, besides talking about reading Hebrew with “fire in the belly,” so go read it all.