Biblical Hebrew Words
William R Long, M Div, Ph D, J D
Most textbooks introducing Biblical Hebrew try to cover a lot of ground in a few hundred pages. The student needs to become familiar with a strange-looking alphabet and vocabulary; a text that reads from right to left; a verb that seems to have more complexities than the human brain; vowels that change based on the function of the word; and texts that often are obscure and even opaque. And if that isn't hard enough, the grammar can be complex. Is it any wonder that almost all Christians that take up the study of Biblical Hebrew and an alarming number of Jews give it up after a year or less of study?
My point is that teachers try to introduce too many things when beginning the study of the language. I hope to remedy that here by offering one aspect of mastery of Biblical Hebrew: Hebrew words. Of course, this isn't the entire language, but no first year course is. What it attempts to do, in the course of more than 100 essays, is to introduce you to the vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew in context. Once you have these words under your belt, it will be relatively easy to learn sentence structure and the Hebrew verb. That is, after studying these essays, you will be well on your way to Biblical Hebrew mastery.
My method is as follows: Each essay introduces between 20 and 35 new Hebrew words, with special attention to a context where they appear in the Bible. Learn them; read them where they appear. Use my method to look at other passages where the word appears, using the online Strong's numbering system. Reading a lesson a day, or five per week, will allow you to master almost all the simplicities and complexities of Biblical Hebrew in several months. I only give the first 50 lessons of the "course" here. Let's begin.