Learning Biblical Languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek

This page was last updated on 1/25/08

General

NRSV Text Notes
The New Revised Standard Bible comes with textual and translational notes that give the reader valuable information about textual variants and alternative translations. This page expands on the explanation of the notes given in NRSV Study Bibles. Should be understandable even by those who don't know the original languages.

NET Bible
I'm in the early stages of actually using the free online New English Translation; so far I like it very much. It's unusual among English translations in that it gives specific information as to why the translators chose to render the Greek or Hebrew as they did.

Crossword Puzzles
These are really pretty cool. No special fonts are required: you type the answers in English, and the Greek and Hebrew clues are transliterated. You do need Java Applets enabled, though. Includes Greek, Hebrew, and general translation puzzles.

Fonts for Scholars
If you want to include actual Greek or Hebrew characters in a word processing document, you'll need to use a special font. This web page contains information about how different types of fonts work and advice on using various fonts. Starts at a basic enough level for non-techies to understand!

New Testament (Biblical) Greek

Greek Fonts:

Greek Fonts
"Anyone starting to study Greek with the help of a computer is first of all confronted with the technical problem of the Greek fonts. However, since many websites offer the possibility to download a Greek font to your computer, the problem mainly consists of the variety of the fonts used! The following survey lists some other fonts that can be freely downloaded. So I do not include fonts for which you have to be registered or which are only distributed on floppy-disk or CD-Rom"

Biblical Greek Courses:

Seminary level Greek course
Most seminaries teach New Testament Greek (also known as Koine Greek or Biblical Greek), and some even teach it online; this is the description of the seminary-level Greek I and II courses being taught by the author of this web page in the 2006-07 academic year. For registration information, contact Bethany Theological Seminary. For information about the course itself, contact me.

Self-paced Online Biblical Greek Summer School
I will be teaching self-paced online New Testament (Koine) Greek Summer School June - August 18, 2008, at nominal cost, for motivated students who hope to "test out" of their institution's Greek I and/or Greek II course, or who just want to learn Greek with some help but without the expense and structure of a for-credit course. If you think you might be interested, please contact me, Susan Jeffers, at susan@read-the-bible.org.

Free Online Greek Course
You can also register for a fee and get a more structured experience complete with homework, quizzes, and feedback from the instructor.

Learning New Testament Greek
Little Greek 101, "an evolving online textbook for beginning New Testament Greek" by Mennonite Jonathan Robie. It will get you off to a good start!

Audio CD-based NT Greek "immersion" course
Click on "Courses" -- there's also a nice sample lesson so you can get the feel for how the course works.

Little Greek
Lots of sound recommendations and help for learning New Testament Greek.

Reading the New Testament (and LXX) in Greek, Aloud or Otherwise:

Learn the Greek alphabet
Complete with sound files, so you can learn to sound out NT Greek words. Part of an online NT Greek course offered Fall 2002 through Bethany Theological Seminary or the Earlham School of Religion.

Four Major Conventions of Greek Pronunciation
Most seminaries and colleges use Erasmian for teaching Biblical Greek; links explain each of the systems and subsystems, and there are sound files (a little scratchy, but understandable) so you can hear for yourself.

Greek New Testament Read Aloud
Streaming audio or download of the entire New Testament, chapter by chapter, read aloud in Greek.

Text of the Greek New Testament
You can start a chapter playing the audio from the link just above and read along. There are minor differences between this Greek text and the one on the audio link just above, but you should be able to follow along quite well.

Read the Greek New Testament
"This Web Site contains notes designed to encourage those who want to read through the Greek New Testament." This site gives the Greek text for each verse, a few key vocabulary words, and commentary. Great if you're an advanced beginner or intermediate stage learner of Greek and want to increase your reading comprehension. Could also be opened as a third window with the above two.

New Testament and Septuagint in Greek
"As a student of the Ancient Greek Language I found that a version of the New Testament and the Septuagint did not exist on the Internet that did not require specialised fonts or keyboard remapping. I hope to change this in a small way by providing these versions in Adobe Acrobat format."

New Testament - Modern Greek Pronunciation
Click on "MP3 Audio Recordings" - most of the Greek New Testament is here, and the remainder is coming. There's also a link to the Greek text if you want to read along.

Ancient Greek Pronunciation
Greek text and recorded pronunciation of several passages from Homer, Aischylos (Aeschylus), and Plato.

Other Helps for Learning Greek:

Perseus
Collection of classical texts in Greek and Latin; dictionaries; Greek text of the New Testament in a form that allows you to click on any word and have its grammatical form and meaning come up in a pop-up window.

BADG Book Review
Review of the new edition of the standard lexicon for New Testament Greek, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, commonly known as BADG from the initials of its authors.

B-Greek
"a forum where the Greek text and language of the Bible are discussed in detail by an eclectic group of beginning students and veteran teachers, laymen and clergy, conservatives and liberals, earnest inquirers and academic scholars -- all equally committed to probing the Biblical text in the original Koine, and jointly exploring the mysteries and probabilities of Biblical Greek morphology and syntax."

Biblical Greek Grammar Summary
One-page pdf file, courtesy of Mark Wessner.

Building Your New Testament Greek Vocabulary
Review of this 1999 book by Robert E. Van Voorst. And here's a review of the newer third edition. Either one is very worthwhile.

The Lord's Prayer in Greek
Greek text, audio, glossary, and grammatical analysis. Long under construction, now only marginally functional. I'm leaving it here to remind myself to get back to it some time. Sorry.

Biblical ("Classical") Hebrew

Learn to Read Biblical Hebrew
Free online beginning course complete with audio. Very nice!

MP3 Audio Hebrew Bible recordings
Chapter-by-chapter, or whole books. I've downloaded several books from this site to my IPOD!

Hebrew Bible with Audio
Great for devotional reading or practice if you're learning Hebrew. Includes a calendar to find the weekly Torah and Haftorah reading, commentaries and other useful helps.

Readings of the Hebrew Scriptures: Selected Psalms with Audio
More biblical Hebrew devotional material.

Audio CD-based Biblical Hebrew "immersion" course
Click on "Courses" -- there's also a nice sample lesson from the corresponding NT Greek course so you can get the feel for the "look and feel" of how the course works.

Psalm 8:4 (Hebrew Psalm 8:5)
"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (KJV)

Textbook Recommendation
One of my favorite introductory Hebrew textbooks is Biblical Hebrew: A Text and Workbook, by Bonnie Pedrotti Kittel, Vicki Hoffer, and Rebecca Abts Wright (Yale University Press, 1989). I recently got the second edition, complete with CD -- excellent! This textbook uses a highly "inductive" approach; if you prefer a more traditional approach (memorize the paradigm and then see how to apply it) best choose a different book.

Biblical Hebrew Grammar Summary
One-page pdf file, courtesy of Mark Wessner.

Aramaic

www.learnassyrian.com
"Learn the Assyrian (Syriac-Aramaic) language. Learn to speak through music, learn to read and write the way Jesus did, build your vocabulary, and learn the Assyrian and Babylonian history through a beautiful screen saver." Oriented toward people who have some knowledge of the language as it is spoken today. The instructions for learning the alphabet are especially helpful.

Aramaic Targum Search
Of course, it helps if you know Aramaic already.

www.Peshitta.org
The Gospels and Acts in Aramaic, including an introduction to the language and an interlinear Aramaic-English text.

Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon
Lots of information about the language and related resources. A work in progress.