Hebrew - Seven tips for studying Biblical languages - Free Biblical Hebrew

Aleph with Beth

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1. Make a prayer card to help you pray about your studies regularly.

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Just like any other part of discipleship, Hebrew and Greek also need prayer. The adversary doesn't want people to be better armed with the sword of the

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Spirit, so pray hard and study hard. Here are some things we recommend putting on the prayer card, and we'll also include them in the description of this video.

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Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. So, the way

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I would pray this verse would be, Father, help me to practice the things I'm learning, immerse myself in them, so that my progress would be evident.

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Here are some other verses to put on the card. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

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Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.

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Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

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Finally, include the following reminder from John Newton, the author of the hymn Amazing Grace.

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He says, Accountability is key, especially when you're doing a self -guided course online.

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It's a simple biblical principle, two are better than one. Your partner might understand something better and be able to help you, and vice versa.

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You can encourage each other when things get tough. Study a little bit every day.

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Lots of people make the mistake of thinking they just need a big block of time once a week. But your brain doesn't work that way for language learning.

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It's far better to study 20 minutes a day consistently than four hours all at once in one day.

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Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to biblical languages. At first, you may not see an immediate return for your investment, but if you stay consistent and build a habit of studying regularly, you'll reach a point when you'll begin to reap a harvest for your effort.

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4. Get plenty of sleep. There's a fascinating book called Why We Sleep that talks about how it's been proven by scientific studies that we need sleep to process new information.

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The less we sleep in a given night, the less we are able to retain what we learned the previous day.

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For your brain to function at its best, you should make sure you get at least 8 hours of good sleep per night to get all of the information you've been studying so hard to get into your brain to process correctly into your long -term memory.

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5. Listen to as much of the language as possible, even if you don't understand most of it.

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We recommend the free Android app developed by the Hebrew Training Department of SIL Papua New Guinea.

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We'll put a link in the description. The app plays the voice of a professional reader who uses a similar pronunciation to our

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Aleph with Beth videos, and you can slow down the speed of the audio in the app if you want. Also, the more exposure to the sounds and patterns of the language your brain has, the more things will sound or feel right or wrong instinctively, even if you don't know the exact rules by memory.

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6. Be okay with ambiguity. A big part of effective, real -world language acquisition is learning to understand what's going on from visual and contextual cues, even if you don't understand every little detail of the words you're hearing.

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When you're in the learning process, don't focus too much on nailing down every detail of the grammar if it comes at the expense of following the flow of the language in conversation.

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Let your questions sit with you a while instead of demanding the answer right away. Further repetition and exposure to vocabulary and grammatical structures in different contexts will often answer your questions, and sometimes you'll find that you've internalized a pattern or word without even having been fully aware of it.

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In other words, let your subconscious language -learning brain do its job over time, and don't get too bogged down by fixating on small details early on if they keep you from entering and enjoying the flow of the new language.

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7. Stay humble. One of the biggest temptations you will face while learning the biblical languages is pride, especially spiritual pride.

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If you are not prepared to be tearing out the pride in your heart every day and stamping on it until it's smashed like a cockroach, don't learn the biblical languages.

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Knowledge of Greek or Hebrew is often used like religious makeup to make us look more spiritual than we really are, to cover up our other sins so that others will praise us.

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So please don't use the biblical languages in this way. Another thing that goes along with staying humble is be careful not to become a wise fool.

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What I mean by that is shown on this chart. This is called the Dunning -Kruger effect.

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It's about the tendency that everyone has to overestimate their competence when they only know a little.

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In other words, we humans have a tendency to think we're wise when we're really fools.

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It goes with the saying, a little learning is a dangerous thing. That doesn't mean you can't learn a little.

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Of course, we all have to start somewhere. It just means that you should stay humble and remind yourself all the time that you don't know very much.

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For most people who don't know a lot yet, it's really hard to realize how much there is out there that they don't know.

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So be aware of that. Also, those who are ignorant have more of a tendency to criticize those who actually do know a lot.

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So when you're learning the biblical languages, be careful not to think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.