Sparks Commentary: Learning the basics of Biblical Hebrew from a book

“Our knowledge of Biblical Hebrew is directly dependent upon Jewish oral tradition and thus on the state of that tradition during and following the various dispersions of the Jews from Palestine. This dependence arises from the peculiarly deficient orthography in which the biblical text was written: it is essentially vowelless, or at most, vocalically ambiguous (see below, §8). The actual pronunciation of the language was handed down orally … The written consonantal text itself achieved a final authoritative form around the end of the first century A. D.”

– The introduction to Thomas O. Lambdin’s “Introduction to Biblical Hebrew” (1971), pages xiii-xiv

For nearly three years, I have read Thomas O. Lambdin’s “Introduction to Biblical Hebrew” – some 284 pages of it. Specifically, I read it from 14 August 2022 through 25 July 2025, at which time I completely finished it – excepting the appendices, index, and the entirety of the glossaries (although I read many parts of these glossaries). I did this completely from a book, and never had the benefit of a classroom, a professor, or a native speaker – or even a recording of one, for that matter! I’ve never heard so much as one hour of audio of the language, even from non-native speakers, and this made it somewhat daunting at times. It may have increased the difficulty level in at least some ways, and I don’t recommend it to others unless other options are not available (as they were not for me).

Comments on sounds and spelling, and on the crucial vowel notation that was added later

Strangely enough, the most difficult part of the reading was the “Sounds and Spelling” section at the beginning (essentially a lengthy Lesson Zero). This section introduced the system of transliteration that would be used throughout this textbook. It clarified that it was designed more as a reference, which somewhat explained its difficulty. This “Sounds and Spelling” section then introduced the Hebrew alphabet, and the crucial vowel notation that was later added in the centuries following the original text. (More about that in the footnote to this blog post.) Suffice it to say here that this vowel notation is crucially important to understanding the text. If we used only consonants in English, and came across the letters “LT,” that would present many possibilities. Specifically, it could mean “late,” “let,” “lit,” “lot,” “loot,” and arguably even “light.” One could even say “a lot” for these two consonants. This is why the later symbols for these vowels are so important. They help to remove much of this potential ambiguity, and narrow down the range of possible meanings to a smaller number of choices. In many ways, this makes this translation process somewhat easier. The “Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia” (or “Stuttgart Hebrew Bible”) actually includes the well-preserved Masoretic versions of these vowels. (More about how I discovered that edition of the Hebrew Bible here.)

Hebrew alphabet

The hardest parts of the textbook, and being able to see my end goal with this language

Once I got out of the “Sounds and Spelling” section and entered the first lesson, things were still hard, but much easier than in the “Sounds and Spelling” section. I finally got to see some vocabulary, and form a few simple sentences. I’ve been learning Biblical Hebrew for many reasons, including a desire to better understand the Old Testament. But I also wanted to challenge myself with a somewhat harder language – and, more specifically, with a non-Indo-European language. (More about these reasons for learning this language here.) I certainly got the desired intellectual challenge from doing this. Nonetheless, I felt that I was always able to see the end goal with this particular language. By the time that I got through some of the earliest lessons, I realized that many of the example sentences were probably actual quotations from the Hebrew Bible. For example, “The people chose David to be their king.” Thus, I believe that I was given actual sentences from the Hebrew Bible from very early on in the text. I’m actually glad that many of the book’s exercises required me to manually write things in the Hebrew alphabet. That is, they would give me a sentence in English, and ask me to translate it into correct Hebrew. I resisted the temptation to look up these verses in my copy of the Hebrew Bible, and just copy what I saw there. I figured that, if I did this, I wouldn’t get much benefit out of trying to form these Hebrew sentences for myself. Thus, I didn’t even bother to check them. Study of the actual Biblical text, I figured, was likely to come later, at some point in the distant future. At this point, what I instead felt that I needed to do with these particular exercises … was to try and form these Hebrew sentences for myself, practicing the noun and verb paradigms that I had recently learned. Writing in Hebrew was frustrating at times. Thus, it was not my favorite part of these translation exercises. But this did help me to better understand these Hebrew characters (and how they were formed), along with the other diacritical symbols (like the vowels) that are now a part of the written language.

The most rewarding parts of the textbook: Reading actual Biblical passages in the original

I also got much out of practicing the language orally, when instructed to do so. I still feel like writing systems are typically designed to follow the spoken language, and are secondary to this spoken language in their importance. Again, there are no audio-recordings of these native speakers of Biblical Hebrew – although there are recordings of Modern Hebrew speakers, which are related. Thus, there is much debate among the relevant scholars about what the Biblical language might have sounded like. Nonetheless, my favorite parts of this introductory textbook were those parts where the author gave me some actual passages from the Hebrew Bible itself. The idea was to understand the original text – translating where necessary, perhaps, but also getting closer to the original meanings and nuances of the text. I loved, for example, reading the Ten Commandments in the original – or reading selections from the story of the Biblical Joseph in the original. These parts of the exercises were the most fun for me, because I got to experience these familiar stories in a new and exciting way. It was interesting to ponder that I was now reading it in the original – or, at least, getting as close to the original text as I could possibly be getting today. I’m sure that I’ll eventually enjoy being able to use my hard-won Hebrew proficiency for doctrinally significant passages, where the exact nuances of the original text become important to our current controversies. I’m not sure how much I’ll be weighing in on these things when I’m online – although I might possibly do some of that, if I’m inclined to do so later on. Nonetheless, I’m sure that it will at least be helpful to gain these fascinating insights for myself, even if I don’t always share these insights with the world.

Artist’s interpretation of the First Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem

This book focuses on Hebrew prose, rather than Hebrew poetry (with some exceptions)

The book’s preface says that “This textbook is designed for a full year’s course in elementary Biblical Hebrew at the college level. In its choice of vocabulary and grammar it is essentially an introduction to the prose, not the poetical language.” (Source: page iii) Thus, I was surprised to see that this book does actually include a few of the Bible’s poetical passages in the original. For example, there are some verses from the Psalms – a notoriously difficult Biblical book. Indeed, I found my own English readings of the Psalms to be even harder than my prior English readings of Isaiah – which is itself considered to be a poetical book. It’s still correct to say, though, that this introductory textbook is more focused on Hebrew prose than on Hebrew poetry. Thus, I’m not sure what any future experiences with Hebrew poetry might look like for me. Nonetheless, it is standard procedure in many Hebrew programs (including the one at BYU) to start with the prose language, and only later to get into the poetical language. Thus, I’m hoping that this standard approach will work for me, if I later successfully get to the point of reading the Old Testament’s poetical books in the original. I hope that I will then be able to adapt to their linguistic difficulties, and get the most out of my study of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Isaiah – some of the most famous of these poetical books.

My plans to dive into the actual text of the Hebrew Bible itself, albeit with a few other tools

I was originally planning to follow up my reading of this introductory textbook with some reading of an intermediate Hebrew textbook. Specifically, I was planning to read Ehud ben Zwi’s “Readings in Biblical Hebrew: An Intermediate Textbook.” My shelf also contained a copy of Andrew E. Steinmann’s “Intermediate Biblical Hebrew: A Reference Grammar with Charts and Exercises.” I was planning to use this latter textbook as a reference. But, after reading the prefaces and introductions to these two books (and sampling their distinctive approaches), I suddenly had the desire to change course. Specifically, I now want to dive into the actual text of the Hebrew Bible itself. Immersion has long been the best way of learning any language. Thus, I would like to give myself as many immersion experiences as possible, by reading a greater number of actual verses – rather than doing in-depth analysis of some smaller number of verses, as the aforementioned “Readings in Biblical Hebrew” does in some of its lessons. However, I will still appreciate having this copy of the aforementioned “Reference Grammar” with me, in case I need to look something up in this reference book. (This is the one entitled “Intermediate Biblical Hebrew: A Reference Grammar with Charts and Exercises.”) I also plan to have a good Hebrew-English dictionary with me, as well as a copy of the King James Version of the Bible – or, at least, its version of the Old Testament portion thereof. With all of these tools, I’m hoping that I will thus be able to make some progress towards reading the various books of the Hebrew Bible in their entirety.

The other cover for the “Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia”

Conclusion: This book has enriched my life, and shed light on Ancient Hebrew culture

I’ll only know that I’ve been well-taught in the basics, if I’m later able to read the Hebrew Bible for myself. But, even if I later decide to return to one of these intermediate textbooks (or some other such textbook), I currently believe that I was able to get a lot out of Thomas O. Lambdin’s “Introduction to Biblical Hebrew.” It certainly gave me a base from which to work, as I’ve seen while reading some of the selections from the Bible that were included within the textbook itself. And, more importantly, this study greatly helped me to enrich my life, by getting me more deeply into the culture of the Ancient Hebrews. It may have even helped me to broaden my understanding of language itself, and add something to the pleasure of one of my most important hobbies.

“Modern printed versions of the Hebrew Bible derive from several essentially similar sources, all reflecting the grammatical activity of Jewish scholars (or Masoretes, traditionalists) in Tiberias, who during the 9th and 10th centuries A. D. perfected a system of vowel notation and added it to the received consonantal text. Because the vowel system reflected in this notation is not exactly the same as the tradition used in other locales, we must recognize that Hebrew grammar, as based on the vocalized Tiberian Masoretic text, is no more or less authentic than that which would derive from other traditions: it is simply the best preserved and has received, by universal adoption, the stamp of authority.”

– The introduction to Thomas O. Lambdin’s “Introduction to Biblical Hebrew” (1971), page xiv

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