Hebrew Languages Degree at Louisiana State University
Friday, February 27th, 2009When God set about to create heaven and earth-the world being then a formless waste, with darkness over the ocean and only an awesome wind sweeping over the surface of the water-God said, “Let there be light!” (Genesis1:1-3)
If you take biblical Hebrew at LSU, you won’t need an English translation like the one above. Much of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is very simple prose, and a student with just two semesters of the language can read many of the biblical stories.
Why read the Bible in Hebrew? For one thing, every translation is an interpretation. If you can read Hebrew, you can better decide for yourself what the literature means. Furthermore, even the best translation fails to convey the full meaning of the text. You can “see” so much more when you read the Bible in its original language. Finally, it is just neat to be able to read one of the world’s oldest languages. A knowledge of Hebrew helps you to imagine how people might have understood the biblical literature in ancient times, two thousand or more years ago.