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Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| YoshiYoshi Senior Member China Joined 5532 days ago 143 posts - 205 votes  Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 1 of 15 23 November 2010 at 8:03am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Old Testament: Biblical Hebrew
New Testament: Koine Greek Now I've got 3 questions, as follows, 1. Which of these 2 is generally regarded as more difficult to learn ? Koine Greek or Biblical Hebrew ? 2. Is there very little difference between Modern and Biblical Hebrew ? Are they almost mutually intelligible ? 3. Which is slightly more important or useful for Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox ? Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| litovec Tetraglot Groupie Switzerland lingvometer.com Joined 5132 days ago 42 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German, Russian, French, English | Message 2 of 15 23 November 2010 at 11:02am | IP Logged | ||||||||
The speakers of Modern Hebrew are able to understand Biblical Hebrew, however, if you learn Biblical Hebrew you will hardly understand the newspapers forget about the oral conversation.
As far as I know, for Protestants and Catholics Hebrew text is more important; for Orthodox Greek text (Septuaginta) is more important, because they think that the Hebrew text we have today deviates from original. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cmj Octoglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5339 days ago 58 posts - 191 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Arabic (classical), Latin, Italian | Message 3 of 15 23 November 2010 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I suspect Biblical Hebrew is more difficult than Koine Greek. My points of reference here are Arabic and Ancient Greek, which are both very difficult and I would put on about the same level. I've heard Hebrew (even old Hebrew) is easier than Arabic, while Koine Greek is substantially easier than Ancient Greek, particularly when you consider the language and style of the New Testament.
As far as I know, for Protestants and Catholics Hebrew text is more important; for Orthodox Greek text (Septuaginta) is more important, because they think that the Hebrew text we have today deviates from original.[/QUOTE] Given that Greek is the language of the New Testament, which is the distinctively Christian revelation, it is generally more important for Christians of all types than Hebrew, which is found only in the Old Testament. This is particularly true for the Orthodox, since their churches are descended from the Greek tradition. In Catholicism, Latin is, rather bizarrely, more important than either Greek or Hebrew... 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| litovec Tetraglot Groupie Switzerland lingvometer.com Joined 5132 days ago 42 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German, Russian, French, English | Message 4 of 15 23 November 2010 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks for correcting me. I've meant that the Catholics and Protestants see the Hebrew Text of Old Testament as superior, while the Orthodox see the Greek text of Old Testament as superior. However, since for Christians New Testament is more important, Greek is more important for them, you're right. By the way, I've heard that the Christians in the Middle East (at least some of them) see the Aramaic text of New Testament as the original one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Qbe Tetraglot Senior Member United States joewright.org/var Joined 7136 days ago 289 posts - 335 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Japanese, German, Mandarin, Aramaic | Message 5 of 15 23 November 2010 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
This is purely anecdotal, but I'll throw it out anyway. All clergy in our denomination study 4 years of Greek and 2 years of OT Hebrew in college. The Greek is first: 2 years of classical (Attic) Greek, with electives in Homeric and Hellenistic, followed by 2 years of Koine (and more classical electives). Some people breeze through and some struggle the entire time. Hebrew begins in the 3rd year. Halfway through the third year, students have enough grammar and vocabulary to read the book of Jonah. Many of the students who struggled in Greek found Hebrew to be much easier: not as much vocabulary to memorize (and some would say that Hebrew vocabulary was more concrete) and the grammar was less complex (with the exception of all those irregular verb paradigms). That may suggest that Biblical Hebrew is easier. However, I found it very interesting that some of the best students in Greek (supposedly more difficult) really struggled with Hebrew.
For some reason I found both OT Aramaic and Syriac to be much more difficult than either Greek or Hebrew. I'd like to dig out my Syriac book again one of these days and give it another try. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Lamonte Newbie United States Joined 5195 days ago 12 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, French, Modern Hebrew, Greek | Message 6 of 15 24 November 2010 at 1:31am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Biblical Hebrew is most often seen as the more difficult to learn. It takes longer for at least a couple of reasons. The Hebrew letters are harder to recognize than Greek letters - it takes a while to get used to them. Also the Greek New Testament has fewer words than the Hebrew Bible - 5400 to 8300. Around 70% of the New Testament is covered by about 300 Koine Greek words. The same type of word frequency for Biblical Hebrew is around 750 Hebrew words.
They are pretty much the same - same letters and similar grammar. Some archaic constructions from Biblical Hebrew aren't used, and as a whole Modern Hebrew is more simplified.
Christians in general place more emphasis on the New Testament, so the nod goes to Greek. In Protestant seminaries typically more time and focus is spent on Greek. In English there are more Koine Greek resources, aids and helps than Biblical Hebrew resources, so in general Greek is more accessible. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 7 of 15 24 November 2010 at 3:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I have to disagree. I don't know Hebrew but Arabic took me about two weeks to memorize and feel comfortable with the characters. I would also say that the best language to learn if you're a bible enthusiast is Aramaic because it is the language of the bible. I'm not sure if this is a good site but found one for you to check out. http://www.learnassyrian.com/home.html 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| shapd Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6150 days ago 126 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Modern Hebrew, French, Russian | Message 8 of 15 24 November 2010 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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@CaucusWolf
Unless the poster has a specific interest in variant translations of the scriptures, there is absolutely no point in his learning Aramaic. Of the canonical books, only a few chapters of Daniel are actually written in Aramaic, and they can be followed quite easily with a translation if you know Hebrew, since the two languages are as closely related as Italian and Spanish. Its major use is in advanced Judaic studies, since the Talmud is written mostly in it, apart from quotations from the Bible and technical terms. As others have said, if he wants to be able to read the Old Testament, he will need Hebrew. There are variants in the Septuagint, but they are probably not sufficient to justify learning Greek just for that. If he wants to read the New Testament, he needs Koine Greek, a simplified Ancient Greek. If there ever was an Aramaic original, it disappeared millenia ago. I don't think it is possible to decide which is easier to learn. It will depend on the learner's background and preferences. Both have an unusual script, but both could be learnt in a couple of weeks. The grammar of Hebrew is more unusual for a Westerner than Greek, but Greek has far more paradigms to learn. For someone from China I would have thought both were equally exotic. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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