Post by Irwin SchwartzPlease forgive me if I'm talking to the wrong newsgroup.
I'm recently retired and I'm excited about pursuing something I've wanted to do
for a long time. I would like to read the Bible in the classical languages. My
(1) Which of the three (Hebrew, Latin, Greek) is the best (easiest?) first
attempt for an adult learner?
(2) If I live long enough, in which order should I learn them?
(3) Can you suggest any targeted newsgroups for what I want to do?
Please accept my apologies if this is the wrong forum. If it is the wrong one,
can you suggest a more appropriate one?
For what it's worth, I can tell you of my own experiences with all three:
1) I took formal instruction in Latin for a couple of years back in the
60's (this was my first experience in learning a foreign language).
I think you will find Latin difficult in comparison with a modern
European languages, both because of the its grammatical structure and
sentence construction. However, memorization of vocabulary will be
much helped by the numerous English words derived indirectly or directly
from Latin. (I think knowledge of Latin helps more in acquisition of
a Romance language that vice versa.) Moreover, if you wish to read the
Scriptures in Latin, I think you will have a pleasant surprise if you
have been wrestling with classical authors. At least, it was a surprise
to me how easy Jerome seemed in comparison with Caesar. Of course, if
your primary desire is to read the Scriptures in the original languages,
then Latin must take a secondary seat to Greek and Hebrew, so you may
wish on those grounds to study Greek and/or Hebrew first.
2) I started studying Greek about a year after Latin, on my own. I
specifically wanted to be able to read the New Testament in the original
Greek. Unfortunately, the only teaching books I could find in my local
libary were for classical Greek and modern Greek. Both were helpful,
the classical Greek primer more than the modern Greek one. If you were
to acquire a decent knowledge of classical Greek, then you would find
the reading the New Testament pretty easy. (Reading the Gospels after
reading passages from Xenophon's Anabasis is comparable to reading the
Vulgate after Caesar's Gallic Wars.) But I think your best path
is to find a grammar of New Testament Greek and start with that. It
will be a lot easier and will serve (if you wish) as basis to branch
out into classical authors or modern Greek. I should mention that my
own study of Greek was much helped by my previous study of Latin (but
I would think the study of Latin would also be much helped after studying
Greek). This is because stucturally they have much in common. In
accidence, I think Greek (Koine) is somewhat (though not a lot) more
complex than Latin; its syntax is somewhat simpler. There are not quite
so many English derivatives of Greek words as there are of Latin.
I wouldn't let the fact that Greek uses a different alphabet discourage
you. Getting used to the alphabet is a problem encountered early but
easily overcome. After studing many languages over a period of time,
Greek remains my all-time favourite.
3) I started studying Hebrew probably soon after starting my study of Greek.
I think that of the three languages under consideration, Hebrew is
basically the easiest. This in spite of the fact that it has a complex
verbal conjugation, based on different principles from the Greek/Latin
model, and there are far fewer English words that can be associated with
Hebrew words. Also, because of the much wider time-span in which the
Hebrew Bible was written, there are much more "hapax legomena" in the
Hebrew Scriptures than in the Greek New Testament. Of the three languages
in question, I am least competent in Hebrew, not because (I think) that
Hebrew is innately more difficult, but because my own tastes led me to the
other two. As in the case of Greek, the fact that Hebrew uses a different
alphabet should not discourage you.
Ultimately, it depends on what you want. But based on what you have written,
I'd say, tackle (Koine) Greek first, then Hebrew. I think you may find
Latin easier if you have some Greek behind you (though I did things in the
opposite order).
Good luck. I think you will find the study of any of the three rewarding.
(Postscript: You didn't ask about Arabic, although it is a Semitic language
like Hebrew, it is much, much more difficult. Don't try this one unless you
are really determined.)
--
+----------------------------------------------------+
| Will Parsons |
| Modified e-mail address: ***@cshorexyz.com |
| To reply: delete "xyz" from domain |
+----------------------------------------------------+