“The Study of theology in translation is like kissing your bride through the veil
Hayyim Nahman Bialik ‘On nation and language’ (על “אומה ולשון” )
Because translations of the Hebrew Bible/OT are well translations and interpretations. The Hebrew Bible was of course composed in classical Hebrew with a few sections in the related Aramaic language. Therefore it is logical that it is to those languages that serious students of the Hebrew Bible will turn to if they are honestly committed to Ad Fontes.
Our motto, then, is “back to the Hebrew text”.
It is not enough to browse through various magazine articles, and retail at second or even at third hand the facts or fancies of others. We must get back to the ordinary Hebrew sources and verify the results for ourselves.
If need be, we must copy the devotion of the old Rabbis who did not scruple to burn the midnight oil in the prosecution of their studies. “Hananiah ben Hezekiah,” says the Babylonian Talmud, “is of blessed memory, for but for him Ezekiel would have been declared apocryphal, because his words contradicted the words of the Law: three hundred jars of lamp oil were brought to him, and he sat in his garret and solved the contradictions.” That is his example to Hebrew students to-day. Let them toil as he did at their Old Testament tasks. And they shall yet know something of the beauty of the language and the loftiness of the thought, when they have learned.
Adams, John. Sermons in Accents: Or, Studies in the Hebrew Text. London; New York: T&T Clark, 1906.
Prof. Elizabeth Groves on the Importance of Biblical Languages Pt. 1 (Westminster Video Library)
Prof. Elizabeth Groves on the Importance of Biblical Languages Pt. 2 (Westminster Video Library)
Why Study Hebrew with Peter Watts