One of the reasons going to seminary appears to be a daunting task is because the thought of learning Greek and Hebrew strikes fear in the hearts ordinary people. They look at the Greek New Testament and recognize a few letters because they’ve heard about fraternities and sororities. And then they look at the Hebrew Old Testament and have no idea what it says, let alone that they’ve probably picked up the book backwards not realizing that you read Hebrew right to left and that the back of the book is actually the front. Naturally, those who think about coming to seminary want to know what they can do to get ready to study Greek and Hebrew. What can they do to soften the blow?
This may seem like a no-brainer, but there are three simple things that you can do. The first is the most fundamental and basic—learn English grammar. It seems simple, or perhaps even foolish, but it’s an absolute must and is perhaps the biggest obstacle to people learning Greek and Hebrew. People get into class and the professor starts talking in a foreign language even though he’s speaking English. What’s a noun, pronoun, adverb, participle, direct object, indirect object? I can remember sitting in class ruing the fact that I didn’t pay better attention in elementary school when I supposedly learned all of this basic English grammar. My mind drifted back to my days in the third grade when my teacher was telling us about nouns and pronouns and I was barely paying attention. The key to learning any language is that you must understand how it functions, and to do this you must know basic grammar. There are now, blessedly, plenty of resources out there that provide tools for learning grammar for Greek and Hebrew.
Second, if you feel confident that you’ve mastered grammar, then the next step is to learn the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. When you come to your first day of class, chances are the professor will go over the alphabet, send you home, and tell you that you’ll have a quiz on it the next day. If, on the other hand, you already know the alphabet then you can hit the ground running.
Third, if you get passed English grammar and the alphabet, then you can start learning vocabulary. You can go old school and purchase paper vocabulary cards, or you can get an app for your smartphone. Either way, whatever works, learn as much vocabulary as you can. This will definitely smooth out your efforts in learning Greek and Hebrew. You can spend your time learning the specific grammatical categories and syntax rather than also trying to learn new words. You’d be surprised that if you memorize 1000 words (500 for each testament) that you’ll likely learn about 75% of the words in the Greek and Hebrew Bibles.
In the end, study English grammar, the alphabets, and vocabulary, and you will pave the way for success in learning Greek and Hebrew.
