re hebrew grammar texts choose english or german phil sells writes probably a tired old horse but maybe with a slightly different twist i wanted to know if there are any good english language texts for learning ancient hebrew and how these compare with german educational texts qualitywise if anybody has an idea i can t figure out if i should buy one here for later study or wait until i get back to the u s my impression is that for advanced work you will be much better off with german reference works lexicons concordances especially for a first time encounter my personal preference would be to deal with a textbook written in my native language but if you know german and are in germany pick up all the reference books you think you can handle i only know these works by reputation since my german is most rusty but i d look at the following books koehler s lexicon mandeldern s concordance the jenni westermann theological dictionary of the ot what s it like at divinity schools or seminaries in the states is there a lot of language instruction done i really don t have a basis for comparison the amount of language instruction available at us seminaries varies widely mostly depending on the denominational heritage of the school presbyterian and reformed seminaries probably place a lot more emphasis on the biblical languages than others of course any divinity school that has a doctoral program in biblical studies is going to have extensive language resources but there are quite a few masters degree granting seminaries here at which the attitude seems to be more well if you re really interested we ll give you a semester long course but we don t understand why the pattern here at the louisville presbyterian seminary is for first year students to take intensive five week introductory language courses in each language followed by semester long exegesis courses that is hebrew in august ot exegesis in the fall greek in january nt exegesis in the spring these courses are required for graduation a third or a half of the students i d say take advanced biblical work that requires language work
