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10 weeks, June 7 - August 13, 2010
THIS COURSE IS NO LONGER BEING OFFERED -- SORRY
June-July-August 2010 was the last time
Sponsored by: The Church of the Brethren's Susquehanna Valley Ministry Center
If you have questions about the course itself, email the instructor, Susan Jeffers
at susan@read-the-bible.org.
If you have any questions about registration and fees, contact Amy Milligan, milligana@etown.edu 717-361-1450.
This webpage was last updated 12 November 2010.
Welcome to the online Introduction to Biblical Languages summer course !
This 10-week course allows students to learn Biblical Hebrew and Greek at their own pace, covering as much or as little as they are able, up to the equivalent of one full year of Biblical Hebrew and/or New Testament Greek at the undergraduate or seminary level.
No academic credit is given; however many colleges and seminaries allow students to either receive credit by examination or to begin their studies in the second or third term class given adequate previous study. For such students wanting to "test out" of introductory Hebrew or Greek, this course could represent a low-cost and efficient way to advance their Hebrew and/or Greek studies.
Church of the Brethren TRIM, ACTS, or Brethren Academy students can receive
credit applicable to those programs by completing a specified number of units,
which will include both some Greek and some Hebrew, with quizzes and written
assignments. Church of the Brethren pastors (or others desiring continuing education
credits) can earn 2 continuing education credits for completing the same amount
of work. If the student completed a previous SVMC summer Greek course for COB
or continuing ed credit, and desires credit for further study, please contact
the instructor to discuss individualized goals and criteria for such credit.
Anyone with a desire to learn Biblical Greek or Hebrew is welcome in the course. There are no prerequisites. Most instruction comes from the required textbooks and most language practice comes from the exercises in the textbooks. The online portion of the course consists of one unit per textbook chapter, in which the instructor provides additional examples, answers student questions, provides feedback, and assigns short practice exercises using the Hebrew or Greek grammatical features and resources under discussion. Learning any language takes time and discipline; the rewards of learning to read the Bible in the original languages are very great!
This instructor also teaches online Greek
I and II for seminary credit in alternate years, and Greek III as a reading
course, through Bethany
Theological Seminary, as well as other Bible courses at a continuing education
level through the Susquehanna
Valley Ministry Center, in which students are encouraged to learn a little
Hebrew or Greek relating to the particular biblical book under discussion.
This course uses open source online courseware known as Moodle.
Before the Course Begins
If you're considering taking this course please EMail the instructor (specify "SVMC summer 2010") so I'll know you've gotten this far, and keep me posted as to how you're coming along. If you have any problems getting started (technical or otherwise) please don't hesitate to EMail the instructor, Susan Jeffers, at susan@read-the-bible.org.
(1) Register for the class
The course fee is $250 if you want any sort of credit for the Church of the Brethren TRIM program, or for pastors' continuing education, or a certificate for any other purpose, and $125 if you don't need documentation of having taken the course (register as "Sit-in/Personal Growth"). To register, just fill out the form on the course brochure and mail it in with payment.
If you have any questions about registration and fees, contact Amy Milligan, milligana@etown.edu 717-361-1450.
The actual online course will not be available until the official start date, but students are welcome to begin studying early - just get the books and feel free to email the instructor any Greek or Hebrew questions as you go along.
(2) Get the Books
If you are taking the course for continuing education or Church of the Brethren credit, order the 2 required books from your favorite local or online bookstore. You might be able to find them used online, but be sure to get the correct edition! If you are NOT taking the course for any sort of credit, read on - order the Greek books if your main interest is Greek, order the Hebrew books if your main interest is Hebrew, and if you just want to explore, order the two required books below and then see how it goes.
| 3 Required Resources for persons taking the course for Continuing Education or Church of the Brethren credit: | |||||
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A Primer of Biblical Greek, by N. Clayton Croy. Second Edtion. (Eerdmans, 2007) ISBN 9780802860002. Includes CD with supplementary material and helps. This is our main textbook for Greek. The online course will offer one unit per textbook lesson, with helps, examples, a place to ask questions, quizzes and exegetical opportunities. Order online or from a local bookstore. NOTE: If you have an older edition of this book, you can use it; the only difference is that the newer edition includes a CD with additional resources. The actual textbook is the same. |
Ancient
Hebrew: A Student Grammar, by John A. Cook and Robert D. Holmstedt.
Available for you to use free online, or you can download it to your own
computer. This is our textbook for Hebrew, for the beginning lessons. The
online course will offer several introductory Hebrew lessons based on
this book, with helps, examples, a place to ask questions, quizzes and
exegetical opportunities. For Hebrew lessons beyond the first few,
you'll need the textbook below. Click on "PDF of entire textbook" to download. We have the author's permission to use this online book for this course, at no charge. This resource is only available online, not as a printed book.
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The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition; with Dictionary (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft/United Bible Societies) ISBN 3438051133 or 978-3-43805-113-4. Order online or from a local bookstore. If you have some other edition of the Greek New Testament already, you can probably get by without this exact edition. However, we will sometimes refer to this edition using specific page numbers; you'll also use the Dictionary throughout the course. Other editions generally do not have a Dictionary included. For the early lessons, we will use online resources for the actual text of the Hebrew Bible; you do not need to purchase a Hebrew Bible unless you want to go farther with Hebrew. |
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| Optional Books:
If you intend to go on beyond introductory Greek, you will need this standard New Testament Greek lexicon; I will refer to it during this course. If you hope to "test out" or otherwise complete the equivalent of a seminary-level first-year Greek course, you should get a copy and learn to use it: Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd edition. Walter Bauer, William Arndt and Frederick W. Danker (University of Chicago Press, 2000) ISBN 0226039331. If you intend to go on beyond the first few introductory Hebrew lessons in this summer course, you will need the following Hebrew textbook with accompanying CD: Biblical Hebrew, second edition. By Bonnie Pedrotti Kittel, Victoria Hoffer, Rebecca Abts Wright. Yale University Press, 2004. You can get the book alone, with or without the audio CD set and Supplement. I recommend all 3, but if cost is too much of a factor, try to at least get the CD. Check the ISBNs on the Yale University Press web page carefully, to make sure you know what you're ordering. If you intend to go on beyond the first few introductory Hebrew lessons in this summer course, you will also need the standard Hebrew Bible and lexicon. If you hope to "test out" or otherwise complete the equivalent of a seminary-level first-year Hebrew course, you should get a copy of each and learn to use them: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, available in many different formats and editions. If you are planning on studying Hebrew at a particular institution, see which edition your institution uses. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, popularly known as "BDB." Christian Book Distributors has it at a good price.
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(3) Start studying!
The sooner you start, the farther you'll go! See below for links to help you learn the Greek and/or Hebrew alphabet. Start reading and studying the textbooks, and use the CDs, beginning with the introductory material and the first few chapters. I have also posted a few links below, just under the two alphabets, to help you get started. Any questions, feel free to call or email the instructor, even if the course hasn't offically started yet!
(4) Install the fonts, learn the alphabets
A "font" is a set of characters in a particular size and style. Since Greek uses a different alphabet from English, you need a special "font" in order for the Greek characters to display on your computer. Just follow the instructions at the website below. If you have trouble, contact the tech support folks listed below, or get a computer-knowledgeable friend or relative to help you. Last resort, email the instructor. I'm willing, just probably not as capable as the first 2 suggestions. Installing fonts isn't difficult; I offer the tech support suggestions just to reassure the technically challenged that help is available!
For this course, you will need a Greek font and a Hebrew font installed on your computer, namely the public-domain "bwgrkl" and "bwhebb" fonts that the BibleWorks software uses; available free at the BibleWorks website. Unfortunately, tech support is only available for pesons who have purchased the BibleWorks software. So if you have more trouble with bwgrkl and bwhebb than your tech support relative or friend can resolve, email the instructor.
When you have the two fonts installed and working, you should see the Greek and Hebrew alphabets displayed here:
| bwgrkl | abgdezhqiklmnxoprstufcyw |
| bwhebb | tvfrqcxp[snmlkyjxzwhdgbBa |
Even before you have the fonts working properly, you can click here to start learning the Greek alphabet.
Then, when the Greek font is installed (in other words, the writing in the right column, top line above is in Greek), if you like you can practice sounding out Greek sentences by reading along with 1 John 1:5-2:5 or John 1:1-18. You'll need a sound card, speakers, and properly installed software to hear the Greek pronounced. Even though no one actually speaks New Testament Greek today (in the sense of using it in everyday life), nevertheless speaking and hearing the Greek New Testament will aid your learning tremendously. Memorizing passages of the New Testament in Greek can also be a wonderful devotional practice, and over time will deepen your understanding of scripture.
This web page will give you a good start learning the Hebrew alphabet and sounding
out Hebrew words:
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/7_home.html
Then you can use this to help you practice "sounding out" the Hebrew:
http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/hebrew/3hebrew-texts.pdf
(5) Log on to Moodle and start the course
You will receive instructions on how to do this some time after you register
and before the course officially begins.
If you have questions about the course itself, email the instructor, Susan Jeffers at susan@read-the-bible.org.
For information on registration and fees, contact Amy Milligan, milligana@etown.edu 717-361-1450.
About the Instructor
Susan Jeffers is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
She graduated from the Earlham School of Religion with an MA in Biblical Studies,
May 1999. Since then she has taught as adjunct faculty for
Bethany Theological Seminary (New Testament Greek I, II and III), the Earlham
School of Religion (Quaker Studies courses), the Brethren
Academy for Ministerial Leadership (Introduction to Biblical Studies), the
Susquehanna Valley Ministry Center (Bible courses), Seminary of the Southwest (introductory
New Testament Greek intensive) and University of Toronto's Knox College (New
Testament I and II). Susan has presented at the annual meeting of the
Society of Biblical Literature, November 2005, on the topic "Tips
for Teaching Greek Online." She has also written for Friends publications,
led many workshops on biblical topics, and led an early morning Bible Study
at the regional Friends gathering known as Lake
Erie Yearly Meeting for about 10 years.
This self-paced summer biblical language course has as its motivating factor Susan's deep love of Scripture and her desire to help persons engage the Bible more deeply.
