Another informative video by the ‘Insitute of Biblical Culture’ worth watching.
How to be sure that you know a classical or Biblical language?
In the last post, I mentioned how one can know for sure if they or anyone else actually has acquired a modern Language. I then received a few questions from my subscribers about Biblical languages. The majority to the effect of: “What then of the so-called dead languages like classical languages, and Biblical languages? How does one ascertain that one has attained fluency in a Biblical language?”
The answer is easy. Since the main purpose of learning a classic or biblical language is to be able to read them, then can you read them? In other words…
If you can leisurely read and comprehend texts in your (dead, classical, or Biblical) language of choice without constantly needing to consult a lexicon or parse words you then know that you have acquired the language. Another good sign of acquisition is if you can figure out the meaning of unknown words from context much as you can in your native tongue then you know that you are competent.
Paul on Hebrew
How, do you know if you or someone else really knows a foreign language or an L2? Easy, if you or another person can speak, listen, and (read) write the language in such a way that you can communicate back and forth with native speakers and very proficient experienced L2 or L3 users of the said language then you know that you (or someone else) really has acquired a high level of fluency in the said language.
To be sure while Classical or Biblical Hebrew is not identical with modern Hebrew never the less there is a very great overlap between them. So, much so that young native speakers of modern Hebrew can easily read the narrative sections of the Hebrew Bible and more proficient educated speakers of modern Hebrew can read all of the Hebrew Bible just the same as a modern speaker of English can read the works of William Shakespeare. Is the ‘middle English’ that Shakespeare uses the same as the current English of today? No, absolutely not both in terms of grammar and some vocabulary items, however, a literate native speaker of English can generally read and understand the works of Shakespeare.
The following video on Hebrew (in Hebrew but with English subtitles) is from Paul of the LangFocus youtube channel.
BIBLICAL PUNS
The Director Insitute of Biblical Culture Rabbi Dr. David Moster has produced a very interesting and informative video on puns in the Hebrew Bible.
What do you think?
BHQ Leviticus released!
New Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ) Volume: Leviticus!
Abram K-J author of the Words on the Word Blog reports on the 8th and most recent Fascicle of the BHQ so far to be published here: https://abramkj.com/2021/09/17/new-biblia-hebraica-quinta-bhq-volume-leviticus/.
Well, what about the BHQ?
The BHQ like the BHS before continues the tradition of being a diplomatic edition of the Leningrad Codex (the oldest complete codex of the Hebrew Bible). In other words, rather than creating an eclectic text like the editors of the Nestle-aland novum testamentum graece are fond of the editors of the BHS and now the BHQ intended to reproduce an actual existing codex of the Hebrew Bible. This time around the editors are including both the unedited Masorah Parva and the Masorah Manga, too as well as a commentary.