Learn to Read Biblical Hebrew: A Guide To Learning The Hebrew Alphabet, Vocabulary And Sentence Structure Of The Hebrew Bible - Softcover

Benner, Jeff A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1589395840 ISBN 13: 9781589395848

Publisher: Virtual Bookworm.Com Pub Inc, 2004

Synopsis

Anyone interested in learning to read the Hebrew Bible in its original language will find within the pages of this book all the resources needed to begin this wonderful journey. The book is laid out in four parts. The first part teaches the Hebrew alphabet through a series of lessons. The second part teaches word and sentence structure of the Hebrew language by breaking down each Hebrew word in Genesis chapter one, verses one through five. The Hebrew text of Genesis chapter one is provided for reading and comprehension practices in part three. The fourth part of the book contains charts and dictionaries of prefixes, suffixes, words and roots of the Hebrew language to assist the reader with vocabulary definitions and comprehension. Within a short amount of time the Hebrew student will soon be reading the Bible through the eyes of the author rather than the opinions of a translator.

About this title

About the Author

Jeff Benner has had a long interest in the Hebrew language of the Bible and in 1996 he began researching the ancient pictographic alphabet used by the Hebrew people and other Semitic tribes. He has made many significant discoveries linking the ancient Hebrew culture with the ancient Hebrew language and alphabet. In 1999 Jeff founded the "Ancient Hebrew Research Center" to research and teach Biblical understanding through the alphabet and language to those with little or no Hebrew background. Jeff's current project is the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible. This Lexicon defines Hebrew words of the Bible according to their cultural context revealing the original Hebraic meanings of Biblical passages and words.

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Why Learn Hebrew?

A translation of the Biblical text is a translator's "interpretation" of the text. The translator's beliefs will often influence how the text will be translated and anyone using his translation is seeing it through his eyes rather than the original authors. Only by studying the original language of the Bible can one see the text in its original state.

Learning the Hebrew language can be both fun and exciting. By simply studying the pages that follow for just a few minutes a day you will soon be reading Hebrew and build a vocabulary of Hebrew words and phrases.

About Hebrew

The English word "alphabet" is derived from the first two letters of the Greek Alphabet: Alpha and Beta. Hebrew on the other hand uses the word "alephbet", the first two letters of the Hebrew alephbet: aleph and bet. The Hebrew alephbet consists of 22 consonants and no vowels. The vowels are dots and dashes added above and below the consonants. One advantage to Hebrew is that the sound for each letter remains the same unlike English where one has to memorize many variations. For instance the word circus contains the letter "c" twice, the first is pronounced like an "S" while the other is pronounced like a "K".

Unlike English, which is read from left to right, Hebrew is read from right to left just as many other Semitic languages such as Arabic. This may sound difficult but in a very short time you will get used to it.

When sounding out a word it will be easier if you remember the Consonant (C) and Vowel (V) patterns of Hebrew words. In English, the consonants and vowels may be arranged in any order such as in the word "circle" which has a C+V+C+C+C+V pattern. Hebrew on the other hand is very consistent and each word will follow a C+V+C+V+C... pattern. The Hebrew word %,l,m (melek - king) contains the pattern C+V+C+V+C, Ak,l,m (meleko his king) is C+V+C+V+C+V and %,l,m'h (hamelek the king) is C+V+C+V+C+V+C.

The pronunciations of some of the consonants and vowels have changed over the centuries but this does not affect the meaning of words as the letters of the words define it and not the sounds. We will learn to pronounce them according to the Modern Hebrew pronunciation. Modern Hebrew pronunciation is also divided into two parts, Ashkenazi and Sephardic. Since Sephardic is the pronunciation adopted by the Modern State of Israel, we will use this pronunciation.

About this Book

When I began to study the Hebrew language I used several different resources but found that they were not compiled in a format for beginning Hebrew students. I began to arrange charts and lists with the necessary information as a ready resource for learning and reading the Hebrew Bible.

This book is the result. Included in this book are lessons for learning the alephbet, word and sentence structure and references to prefixes, suffixes, words and roots.

If at any time you have questions about the Ancient Hebrew Research Center, this book, its content or the lessons, please feel free to E-mail your questions or comments to us through our web site;

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org

Additional Resources

It should be kept in mind that this book is not meant to be used for in-depth Biblical study, but as a reference guide for Biblical reading practice, vocabulary building and sentence comprehension. More specific dictionaries and lexicons will be necessary for more in-depth study.

Through the process of Hebraic studies, you will want to dig deeper into the meaning of specific words and phrases. At this point the purchase of a Hebrew Bible and a Hebrew Lexicon will be helpful. There are several different kinds of Hebrew Bibles. The standard Hebrew Bible will be a Bible written only in Hebrew. The Interlinear Bible will have the Hebrew on one line and the English translation for each word under each Hebrew word. A Parallel Bible will have the Hebrew text on one page and the English translation on the other

There are several different Lexicons but be sure that the one you purchase includes all the words of the Bible with the prefixes and suffixes attached. This will allow you to look up a word even if you do not know the root. I recommend Benjamin Davidson's "Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of the Bible".

Edition details

• Publisher: Virtual Bookworm.Com Pub Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1589395840
• ISBN 13: 9781589395848
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 131