This article is aimed at those native English speakers who have an inkling to learn Biblical Hebrew through self-study. Two of the major difficulties that one must overcome are learning a new script for the Hebrew aleph-bet and getting accustomed to the language moving in the opposite direction of English. Since these two elements of the language are among the first to be encountered it is often easy for the beginner to get frustrated and quit. So, what is the trick?

The trick is to give yourself plenty of time to learn the Biblical Hebrew script and to get acclimated to the language moving from right to left without falling behind in learning vocabulary and grammar. This can be accomplished fairly easily with Biblical Hebrew because of its close proximity to Modern Hebrew. Much of the vocabulary of Modern Hebrew is the same as Biblical. For example pronouns are the same in Modern and Biblical Hebrew.

In addition, Modern Hebrew makes consistent use of participial forms that are the same as those in Biblical Hebrew. Therefore, by listening to recordings of Modern Hebrew one could pick up some features of the vocabulary and grammar of Biblical Hebrew without even knowing the Hebrew aleph-bet and without having to read from right to left. This would afford one the opportunity to take plenty of time learning and getting acquainted with the more difficult aspects of the language.

In terms of recommending audio, I will give you only the free resources that I am aware of. You could download Foreign Service Institute Modern Hebrew lessons from the internet. These are very good; however, they are not the easiest to use since they need to be downloaded separately and some reading is required.

I personally prefer Pimsleur Hebrew lessons, which are typically very expensive. Yet you can get the equivalent of a Basic course in Hebrew from Pimsleur for free by clicking here and finding the treasure in the lower left hand corner of the screen. This offer would give you ten lessons to work on while learning the Biblical Hebrew aleph-bet.

Jeremy Thompson is a doctoral student focusing on Biblical Hebrew teaching methodology.

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For Biblical Hebrew we recommend the following course:

Biblical Hebrew Software

For Hebrew for Jewish Prayer we recommend the following course:

First Steps in Hebrew Prayer

For Modern Hebrew, we recommend the following program:

Pimsleur Comprehensive Hebrew