Teaching the Language of the Old Testament
From The Forum Magazine, Spring 2014 - view the full issue here
When I was a young boy growing up in my hometown, I would regularly pedal my bicycle the two miles or so to the bridge that crossed the bay and then spend the day fishing off the catwalk. Imagine my surprise when I returned to my hometown some years later to discover that Tampa had become a sprawling urban center with multi-lane highways and modern buildings making my old bike route unrecognizable. Anyone would be taking their life in their hands if they decided to make their wobbly way on a bicycle along those roads now while carrying a fishing pole, tackle box, and a stringer full of fish! Tampa is not what it used to be. But then again, neither is Hebrew instruction at Calvin Seminary.
Some people who studied biblical Hebrew at Calvin Seminary in the past may be carrying around a perception of the experience as outdated as my perception of Tampa proved to be. There have been many and substantial changes over the almost two decades I have been teaching the subject. Those changes in how biblical Hebrew is taught have kept pace with changes in computer technology, distance learning capabilities, and a general shift in emphasis in all areas of education from “what” to “so what.
The changes have been as dramatic as the change from the old bait shack by the bay to the upscale restaurant that now stands in its place. When I arrived at Calvin Seminary in 1995, biblical Hebrew was taught in three quarters, after a “Hebrew boot camp” that took place during three weeks at the end of the summer break. That boot camp was a hard slog and a big inconvenience for international students who had to cut their summers short to start an intensive program before the regular academic year. Then, after wading through a grammar book for two and a half quarters, students finally came to the exegetical payoff in the last half of the last quarter—a long time to wait for the “so what.” That arrangement was, if you will, the old bait shack. But the new program that now stands in its place looks nothing like it.
When computers began to be more common tools than curiosities (Yes, there was such a day!), we began incorporating their use into Hebrew instruction as well. Computer generated vocabulary flash cards and parsing practice guides were big deals when they first appeared. And we made use of them. Next came audio files. Students could now hear Hebrew words pronounced as well as displayed, thus engaging another sense in their learning. Bible software programs became available that presented the text of the entire Hebrew Bible, and even provided search capabilities! And biblical Hebrew instruction at Calvin Seminary continued to change and adapt. There have been at least ten complete revisions of the course in the last twenty years. That’s right, ten! And I’m not talking about little tweaks here and there. I’m talking about different textbooks, experimenting with an entirely online course, restructuring to include an introduction to biblical language software, adapting to three different course management systems, etc. The biblical Hebrew course has certainly not suffered from a lack of attention. It has seen more adjustments than a chiropractor’s office.
So what does biblical Hebrew language instruction at Calvin Seminary look like now? It is a great time to be asking the question because we are just completing yet another major renovation. Beginning next fall, there will be two biblical Hebrew courses, both extending over two semesters. One of the courses will be for students taking the course at a distance. In fact, this course was already launched this year and the first cohort of students is just now completing it. The other course will be for our in-residence students. Though delivered in different ways, both courses have the same basic format. There will still be some of the “what” that is necessary for learning a language: common vocabulary words, basic grammar and syntax. But there is now a marked shift to an emphasis on the “so what.” Consider just a tiny example. A computer program might tell the student that the Hebrew verb has a Waw Consecutive attached to it. That’s the “what” and does precious little to enhance our understanding. Learning, however, that a Waw Consecutive signals the fact that the action of this verb logically or chronologically follows the previous action is the “so what” and is very exegetically significant. We can then appreciate, for example, that we shouldn’t understand the Hebrew assertions that “the Lord was with Joseph” and “Joseph was successful” as two unrelated, positive aspeCalvin Seminary of Joseph’s life. Rather, we should understand the second statement as logically following the first, and read them together as: “The Lord was with Joseph and as a consequence Joseph was successful.” The Lord’s presence is powerfully generative!
So how in practical terms have we facilitated this change in focus towardthe “so what” by the way the Hebrew course is constructed? Instead of placing the exegetical section at the end of the two-semester course, we have now distributed the exegetical insights throughout the course. Now, as soon as students learn a specific feature of the language, they can see the reason why it is necessary to know that feature by seeing its exegetical payoff in an actual biblical passage. Each lesson of the grammar includes a brief video and animated PowerPoint presentation (in addition to the riveting classroom presentations for our in-residence students). There are also Guided Exercises, which are directed exercises in actual biblical texts that lead students to see how what they learned will help them go deeper in their understanding of the Word. Weekly Labs help them to put together everything they have learned each week. And supplemental tools abound. There are one-page summaries of “need-to-know” language features, audio vocabulary, mnemonic devices, FAQs, and, of course, an engaging professor. For several years, we have been encouraging students in their use of Hebrew language tools by means of instruction in Logos Bible software. However, due to the high cost of Logos, and the fact that many students enter the seminary with either a different Bible software program or no software program at all, we (with the great help of our Educational Technologist, Nathan Bierma) have developed an in-house online biblical language tool that will serve their needs. Every effort is being made to make learning biblical Hebrew as rewarding as possible, and to use the available technological resources to do so. Anyone who is interested in exploring for themselves what the seminary is doing in this area can now do so relatively inexpensively by means of a Hebrew resource we’ve made available online at: http://study.calvinseminary.edu. This resource has many of the same features of the for-credit course and takes an individual all the way from no knowledge of Hebrew to an ability to read prose Hebrew texts.
Some may nevertheless still wonder why we bother to teach biblical Hebrew at all when Bible software programs make so many details readily available. But, as we have already briefly observed, computers can be very helpful in telling us the “what,” but not the “so what.” We are training ministers of the Word of God, who are responsible for tending to the precious souls of human beings. We ministers have to be terribly sure that we get things right or we can do major, widespread, and lasting damage. Enthusiasm and energy are not enough. I had those when I helped my father weed the garden, but because I couldn’t tell a young weed from a young flower, I’m afraid many blossoms never saw the light of day. Paul wrote to Timothy, a young church leader he mentored: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). We strive to do our best to learn both the “what” and the “so what” of this Word we proclaim because we believe the God we serve and the people we pastor are worth our best.
Clearly, both the content and the method of teaching biblical Hebrew at Calvin Seminary have changed greatly over the years. These changes have placed Calvin Seminary at the forefront of innovation in the wise use of technology to enhance language learning. And there is no doubt that Hebrew instruction will continue to evolve as other capabilities become available. Calvin Seminary has been and remains committed to providing our students with all the tools they need to be effectively engaged in building God’s house. The language of the Old Testament is one of those tools.
(Michael Williams, Professor of Old Testament, emeritus)
