Hebrew weak verb cheat sheet - 6 September 2010 |
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This post is a little present to all the theological students who are just beginning second-year studies in (or re-sitting second-year exams in) Biblical Hebrew. It’s therefore probably relevant to about 17 people in the whole of the UK. Apologies to the rest of you. Here goes anyway…
Lots of theological students find Hebrew a bit baffling. Especially weak verbs. Way back in the day, I was one of them. James Robson, our lecturer at that time, was (and is) an utterly outstanding teacher, and produced dozens of full-colour sheets designed to help us chart a course through the minefield of weak verb paradigms. Some of my fellow-students even managed to learn them. Yikes – there were some smart folks in that class. But not everyone has the neck muscles to support the planet-sized brain necessary to memorize all that stuff.
Fortunately, it turns out that there’s an easier way. If you think about it, you don’t actually need to learn all of the rules for forming Hebrew verbs if your only aim is to translate from Hebrew to English. The range of possible meanings for any given verb is constrained both by the root letters that remain and by the context. This means that if you have a good grasp of Hebrew vocabulary, and if you’re sufficiently experienced at actually reading the Hebrew Bible that you have a reasonable idea of the context, then a few simple rules will enable you to identify the root letters of almost every weak verb in the Hebrew Bible. You won’t impress your purist friends, but you might pass the exam, and you might even find yourself able to read the Hebrew Bible. Now there’s a neat idea.
So, without further ado, here it is.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog