I’ve always likened studying Biblical Hebrew to having a girlfriend: if you don’t spend time with her, she’ll be very upset with you. On the other hand, treat her kindly and things will go well. The same is true of studying Hebrew to the point that if you’re married and studying Hebrew, your wife may think you have another lover. Well, I’m purposely polygamous in this regard.

Regularly reading Hebrew is a struggle for me. It can be so taxing staring at those characters! And that’s even while using my Reader’s Hebrew Bible. But let me tell you, I am always blown away how more facility with Hebrew comes with regular reading. Read one day and feel tired. Read two and feel a little bit better. Read three in a row and you’ve almost connected four. Read four or more in a row and start rolling. To go further, how about a strategy?

There’s a great summer Hebrew reading strategy posted over on the Ancient Hebrew Poetry blog. He  writes that “One way of weaving a part of the Hebrew Bible into your cognitive flesh is to read through the book of Genesis in Hebrew until you understand every line of it on the fly without a dictionary or a grammar to help you.”

His strategy follows this format to tackle Genesis:

1. Study visually pericope by pericope
2. Listen pericope by pericope
3. Master the text grammatically – think in terms of grammar, syntax, and information structure.
4. Master the text semantically. Before running to commentaries, it pays to devote time to the language and structure of the text itself.

What a beast of a strategy! I can testify to the value of a multimedia approach to learning/retaining Hebrew. When I did an independent study on Exodus in seminary, I listened through the book ad nauseum until I began hearing the text in my head. This served in part to speed up the pace at which I was able to read and this made me happy. (Any little thing to lift your spirits while studying a language will keep away a defeatist attitude and keep you going.)

Yes, the strategy above is a beast, but it’s a strategy, a purposeful, intentional outline to master Hebrew. It won’t be comfortable, but it’ll sure be a blessing.