Learning Biblical Hebrew ― Reading for Comprehension: an Introductory Grammar

What's the best way to learn a new language? By approaching it not as a series of facts to memorize but as something alive, with a personality you can get to know and tendencies you can sometimes predict.

Designed for long-term retention, Learning Biblical Hebrew focuses on helping students understand how the Hebrew language works and providing a solid grounding in Hebrew through extensive reading in the biblical text.

• Introduces advanced concepts in a form accessible to beginning students.


• Focuses on historic patterns and changes that minimize memorization.


• Focuses on how the language works for long-term retention.


• Encourages mastery of paradigms from a handful of representative forms.


• Includes extensive translation from the third week of class.


• Prepares students for translation of unedited biblical texts by the end of first semester.


• Emphasizes reading comprehension rather than decoding.


• Promotes a strong oral component to enhance language competence.

Karl V. Kutz (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is professor of biblical languages at Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon. For more than two decades, his teaching and mentoring of students in the language and literature of the Hebrew Bible has cultivated students' passion for the biblical text, shaped and transformed their lives, and led to the establishment of an outstanding program for the study of the Hebrew Bible.

Rebekah L. Josberger (Ph.D., Southern Seminary) is the associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Since joining Multnomah in 2009, she has focused on developing a solid Hebrew program that enables and encourages students to learn Hebrew well enough to use it for personal growth and ministry long after they leave seminary. She teaches Old Testament with a focus towards biblical theology and continues research related to Torah.