Deepen your understanding of communities influenced by religious belief and consider fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of human life.
Course
— Academic Direction:
91app
Biblical Hebrew: Language and texts
Module information>
This module will enable students to develop both a thorough grounding in the Biblical Hebrew language and the necessary knowledge to perform translations, analysis and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible in its original language.
The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is a key text in the study of Divinity and a deep understanding of this text is crucial for historical, theological, and narrative analysis. As the text is composed almost completely in Biblical Hebrew, knowledge of this ancient language is a vital tool for developing that deep understanding.
Topics covered
- The Hebrew alphabet, vocalisation, syllabification and tone, the definite article, the conjunction waw (units 1-4)
- Nouns (gender and number); Verb conjugations: qal qatal, yiqtol, wayyiqtol (5-8)
- Adjectives, demonstratives, the construct chain (formation and use) (9-13)
- Possessive suffixes, personal pronouns, suffixes on prepositions, cardinal numbers (14-18)
- Verb conjugations: qal weqatal, active participle, volitives, infinitives construct and absolute (19-23)
- The qal passive participle, stative verbs, ordinal numbers, object suffixes on verbs (24-27)
- Verbal stems: the nifal, hifil, hofal (27-29)
- Verbal stems: the piel, pual, hitpael (30-32)
- Weak roots: I/II/III-guttural, III-alef, III-he, I-alef (33-36)
- Weak roots: I-n, I-y/w, hollow, geminate; minor stems (37-40)
Assessment
Forum participation (10%) and a 3-hour unseen written examination (90%).
