HEBREW AND GREEK LANGUAGE LEARNING
A survey of methods and sources, books and software, for learning the biblical languages

Recommendations for biblical language learning
Various products are available on the market to learn biblical Hebrew and Greek. Greek lends itself to the computer screen as its characters still read left-to-right, however its diacritical markings and accents can be problematic and entering characters needs to be done via an on-screen keyboard. Hebrew is more difficult as it reads right-to-left and its vowels and accents appear above and below the consonants. Also the character set is less familiar and requires either on-screen or external Hebrew keyboards. Windows does not provide native support for right-to-left text entry except in XP. Recommendations are outlined below and we can supply any or all of these, whether courses, software or books.

Hebrew Courses
For Hebrew we recommend taking a paper-based course at the outset and possibly supplementing it with multimedia or bible package software. Of the paper-based courses around, one is exclusively biblical and the others are combined with modern Hebrew. Of these, one is based in the USA and is rather expensive (Easy Hebrew, $230 including shipping), the other in Israel (Fluent Biblical and Modern Hebrew, $97 plus shipping). Jonathan Went has written an exclusively biblical Hebrew course called Biblical Hebrew made easy which retails at £10 per unit plus 10% shipping in the UK. Each unit develops Hebrew words, passages, grammar and mindset, over 80+ pages including exercises. The benefits include a gentle approach to alphabet learning, explanations of all terms, and Strong’s number linking. The first two units are complete with another two imminent. There is a 10% discount for ordering units 1 & 2 together. Tapes, flash cards and CD-Roms are available as optional extras along with sales of new and second-hand Hebrew bibles and lexicons.

Hebrew textbooks, grammars and lexicons, are widely available, but most modern and recent does not necessarily equate with best. A 400 page Hebrew grammar may appear more useful than a 70 page one, but it might also overcomplicate, infuriate and obfuscate. The standard lexicon, BDB (£25 US edition) is also eminently unreadable, whilst the older Gesenius’ Lexicon (£27.95) is better laid out, linked to Strong’s and offers greater depth and insight rather than dry technicalities. As to grammars, RK Harrison’s (£8.99) offers a readable introduction, as does the short introduction by Cohn-Sherbok (£14.99). Weingreen (£27.50), Lambdin (£18.95), Kelley (£21) and Seow (£22.99) are more thorough. Davidson’s (£16.99) and Gesenius (£60) are the standard and complete works. Inductive approaches are offered by Mansoor (£10.99), Dobson and others, but may appear lightweight.

Hebrew Learning Software
The Parsons Hebrew Tutor (£39.95) package concentrates on biblical Hebrew and leads up to reading the book of Ruth, but learning the alphabet on-screen can be slow. Hebrew World (£45.95) covers biblical and modern Hebrew in a more interactive multimedia design than the ageing Hebrew Tutor package.

Greek Courses
London Bible College offer a correspondence NT Greek course based around working through Wenham’s Elements of New Testament Greek, you could of course just buy the book (£11.95, with audio £19.95; answers book £7.95)! An up and coming replacement for Wenham’s text is John Dobson’s Learn New Testament Greek (£8.99) and another recommended alternative is William Mounce’s The Basics of Biblical Greek (£8.50). Both of these offer a more inductive approach, Dobson’s is the ‘lighter’ of the two but has been widely heralded as a good modern primer.

Greek Learning Software
For Greek New Testament study the Parsons Greek Tutor (£39.95) product isn’t bad covering all the necessary grammar and the reading of John’s epistles. Alternatives include Heavenword Greekmaster (£39.95), containing the complete Greek New Testament to explore and follow as each word is displayed and pronounced. Search on English, Greek or Greek Roots, in this package. Not so much of a Greek learning tutor but a companion to the NT Greek text.

Bible Study Packages
If you want biblical text study packages then the Online Bible is the most economical at just £30 and containing dozens of bible versions and commentaries. It includes Strong’s numbers and very basic Hebrew and Greek search and lexicon tools. The included Hebrew and Greek texts lack pointing (Hebrew vowels) and diacritical marks (Greek accents and breathings).

Various packages are available in the intervening price range from PC Study Bible and Quickverse through to the Logos Hebrew and Greek core collections.

Bibleworks Hermeneutika is the premier bible study package and is really aimed at scholars or those with at least passing familiarity with the original biblical languages. It is now on version 5 (£229 or less, upgrades available) and offers incomparable facilities for searching, comparing and counting, the biblical text. I have personally used it to compile Hebrew student exercises by searching for particular grammatical forms occurring in close proximity to each other in key biblical verses, thus enabling the student to study one verse and at the same time encounter several forms that need practising. The Hebrew texts can be viewed and searched, with or without points and accents. It can compile complete word frequency lists of any section of Scripture and its morphological database searching for parts of speech and specific word forms is second to none. It also includes the best electronic collection of Greek and Hebrew lexicons available. Hermeneutika is even more of a dream for Greek scholars containing numerous Septuagint versions and Greek lexicons such as Liddell-Scott, Friberg, UBS, Thayer, and Louw-Nida. In addition to the newly added Hebrew New Testament there are 8 Greek NT texts.

The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the OT (£319.96) from Brill Academic Publishers is at the top end of the range for Hebrew lexicons pricing. More reasonable is the Logos format BDB Unabridged Hebrew-English Lexicon (£34.95). Bibleworks Hermeneutika itself includes the abridged and unabridged BDB and BDB-Gesenius lexicons but also the excellent Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament by Harris, Archer and Waltke, which is very helpful for word studies and worth over £50.

Apart from biblical languages Bibleworks also offers foreign language versions from Albanian to Ukrainian and Vietnamese, and the latest benefit in version 5 is that you can now add your own bible versions as you translate the text yourself.

Hebrew-Greek-English word processors
The only scholastic resources needed beyond this might include a multilingual word processor for Hebrew and Greek. A number are available but each incompatible with each other. Two high end software packages, Universal Word (from £233) and OnePen, include the ability to type in English, Biblical Hebrew and Greek, as well as Arabic, Syriac, Ugaritic and up to 150 modern languages, assuming you already know the language in the first place! Competitors to Universal Word include Dagesh (£239) and DavkaWriter (£129) which offer both superior and inferior features – there is no perfect Hebrew-Greek-English word processor. Undoubtedly, Universal Word has the best on-screen editable keyboards and ability to fine-tune vowel placement and hide all vowels at the click of a button. DavkaWriter features the full text of the Jewish Bible and Mishnah, complete with vowels, but is a Hebrew-English word processor only. Dagesh, formerly Accent, also contains the full Hebrew Bible and the Jewish prayer book as well as working in 48 languages, but modern Greek, not classical or koine Greek. Also, its on-screen keyboards are hard to use and read. Universal Word is the only product to cover biblical Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Latin, in one package, but is the most expensive and at present lacks the inclusion of free biblical texts, although these are being developed.

Conclusions

Ultimately much will depend on your finances and learning style. However, for Hebrew we would recommend, without too much bias:

· Biblical Hebrew made easy course Units 1&2 (£19.80 inc p&p, extra £6.60 for accompanying tapes, see leaflet for other extras)

· Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament (£30.75 inc p&p)

· For grammatical reference and verb tables a copy of either Weingreen (£27.50), Lambdin (£18.95), Kelley (£21) or Seow (£22.99), listed from oldest to newest, add 10% p&p to each of their prices. Second-hand copies of many of these may be available from us at up to 50% off.

For New Testament Greek, we would recommend:

· Parsons Greek Tutor (£39.95 plus £3 p&p)

· Wenham’s Elements of New Testament Greek (£11.95, with audio £19.95; answers book £7.95 plus 10% p&p) if you like the traditional approach, William Mounce’s The Basics of Biblical Greek (£9.35 inc p&p), if you prefer a more recent inductive style. We usually have second-hand copies of Wenham in stock (£8.25 inc p&p).

For biblical study software useful for both Hebrew and Greek we recommend:

· Bibleworks Hermeneutika (£229), if your budget will stretch, Online Bible (£30) if not. Add £3 p&p to software orders, £6 if it includes Hermeneutika as this is heavy and expensive to insure. Earlier versions of Hermeneutika, which are more than adequate and still outstrip the competition, may still be available at £149 for v4 and £109 for v3.5.

For biblical Hebrew word processing:

· DavkaWriter (£129 plus £3 p&p)

For Hebrew, NT Greek, and other language, word processing:

· Universal Word (from £233 plus £6 p&p)

All of the above are available from BMSoftware and BMBooks at:

Suite 34, The Royal,
25 Bank Plain
Norwich, NR2 4SF
Tel: 01603 667393   Fax: 0870 131 3699
Email: sales@bmsoftware.com

BMSoftware can advise on and supply all of the above products and can provide complete software and hardware solutions at discounted prices for theological libraries and departments seeking to create electronic reference terminals. Please email us to find out more.

Jonathan Went runs BMSoftware, acts as a Net researcher and journalist, an IT consultant and web designer, and runs a correspondence Biblical Hebrew made easy course. He can be contacted by email (jon@bmsoftware.com) or by phone on 01603 667393.

LINKS TO AUTHOR'S SITES
Web Hosting, Design & Promotion: www.bmsoftware.com/webdesign
Biblical and multilingual software: www.bmsoftware.com
Biblical Hebrew correspondence course: www.biblicalhebrew.com
Christian study courses, resources and articles: www.biblicalstudies.co.uk
Roots and Branches - the Hebraic Journal: www.rootsandbranchespress.com
Christian Comment: www.christiancomment.com
Christ for England Bible School: www.cfebibleschool.org.uk