DESCRIPTION:

This course helps students to reinforce skills learned in beginning Hebrew classes and to become acquainted with the variety of literature found in the Hebrew Bible. The class sessions and assignments emphasize reading, translating, and enjoying the Hebrew Bible.

This course benefits students wishing to hone their skills in reading and interpreting the Hebrew Bible. While well-trained Hebrew students should be able to adjudicate often competing translations and interpretations of verses, a worthy goal of exegetical courses, this course addresses the need for breadth of exposure to the biblical text. Thus, this course complements the depth required in exegesis and, hopefully, stimulates a lifetime of devotional and academic reading in the Hebrew Bible.

The class will meet once weekly for a three-hour and twenty-minute session. The textbook is a Hebrew-only Bible. Class members will read and mark portions of the Bible to prepare for group reading during class.

A Hebrew Bible. Though any Hebrew-only text is acceptable, most students will probably want to use Elliger, Karl, and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1990.

Brown, F.; S. R. Driver; and C. A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an appendix, containing the Biblical Aramaic. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996 [original date, 1906].

Either:

Joüon, P. and T. Muraoka. A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblio, 1991. OR

Gesenius, W.; E. F. Kautzsch, et al. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar. 2d ed. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1963; [original date, 1910].

See the Biblical Division bibliography "Linguistic and Exegetical Books Required in the Master of Divinity Program" available in the SOT Academic Advising office.

Waltke, Bruce K. and M. O'Connor. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990.

Williams, Ronald J. Hebrew Syntax: An Outline. 2d ed. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1976.

Daily translating and marking of assigned biblical passages. This work will be assessed primarily by recitation and participation in class, though translation quizzes may be given as needed to inspire full participation in the course process. The in-class final measures a student's skill in using a Hebrew Bible, a grammar, and a lexicon.

LG502 or equivalent. No audits.

Elective.

Yes.