Miles Custis
A Jewish proverb says, “Reading the Bible in translation is like kissing your bride through a veil.” You can still get the message, but there is something missing—you are more removed from the text. Learning Hebrew gets you closer to the text. It makes your ability to interpret the Old Testament, in Dr. Mark Futato’s words, more “precise and profound.”
Learning Hebrew, however, is challenging. Many people struggle to learn it on their own, and not everyone has the time or money to enroll in a seminary Hebrew course. For those that do, it can be challenging to keep up with the influx of new vocabulary and concepts. The Mobile Ed course LA251 Introducing Hebrew Grammar by Mark Futato helps you learn Hebrew on your own time and at your own pace.
In the course, Dr. Futato, who has taught Hebrew since 1988, walks you through the basics of Hebrew grammar. You’ll learn how to read Hebrew, how to recognize the different forms of nouns and verbs, and how the different parts of speech fit together. In each unit, Dr. Futato introduces new vocabulary for you to memorize, provides practice exercises, and reads through passages of the Hebrew Bible helping you recognize and parse the words you’ve learned.
LA251 Introducing Hebrew Grammar is our most interactive Mobile Ed course yet. The videos display the Hebrew text as Dr. Futato reads it and highlights the grammatical features you are learning:
The course comes with a separate Activities resource full of activities that allow you to practice parsing and translating words and phrases. It includes text entry boxes for you to enter your answers and an expandable “Show Result” section that provides you with the answers when you are ready.
The Activities resource also includes instructions on how to search in Logos for the various parts of speech discussed throughout the course and provide links to selected Logos guides and tools to help you study words and concepts deeper.
The transcript of the course includes all the Hebrew Dr. Futato reads and discusses so you can read through the Hebrew in each segment at your own pace. It also provides links to Dr. Futato’s book Beginning Biblical Hebrew (sold separately) which complements the course and includes multiple choice tests that help you assess your retention of the material.
LA251 Introducing Hebrew Grammar is a great way for you to learn the basics of biblical Hebrew. Since you can work through the course at your own pace, you can make sure you fully grasp the concepts and vocabulary before moving forward. You’ll always have access to the course, so if you need to refresh your Hebrew knowledge later you can re-watch the videos or redo the activities.
You’ll still have to put in the hard work of learning Hebrew, but this course provides you with all the tools necessary and allows you to learn it at your own pace. And learning Hebrew is worth the effort. As Dr. Futato says, “it’s going to enhance your ability to understand God, to understand yourself, to understand God’s world as you come to a better understanding of God’s Word.”
Timothy Muehlhoff
Logos Staff
