Biblical Hebrew

[ratio1]

Do Catholic scholars study Hebrew? most websites/books I find are not Catholic.
Can you recommend a good Catholic resource for studying biblical Hebrew?

 

[BartholomewB]

Do Catholic scholars study Hebrew?

The answer to your first question, I think, is “Not very much” or, if they do, they don’t seem to do it on anything like the same scale as the Protestants. Why do you ask? Would it make any material difference to you as a student of the language? I don’t think so.

Having said that, you might like to take a look at this website, where you’ll find some useful links:

http://www.catholic.co.il/index.php?lang=en

It’s the St. James Vicariate for Hebrew-Speaking Catholics, part of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Among other things, you can link to the Hebrew Bible, and also to the New Testament in Hebrew now in use in Catholic churches in Israel. This translation into modern Israeli Hebrew dates back to the 1970s. The committee of translators included both Catholic and Protestant specialists and it is the NT text now in use by nearly all Hebrew-speaking churches in Israel, Catholic and Protestant alike.

 

[Spyridon]

@ratio1 of course they do!

Pope Benedict is fluent in Hebrew.

Here are some names of Catholic biblical scholars fluent in Hebrew:

Most Rev. Bishop Charles Greco, DD
Most Rev. Bishop Joseph T. McGucken, S.T.D

Rev Msgr. Patrick W. Skehan, S.T.D, LL.D
Rev Stephen J Hartdegen, O.F.M., S.S.L.
Rev Msgr John E Steinmuller, S.T.D., S.S.L
Rev Everhard Olinger

Rev Msgr Ronald Knox

Rev Raymond Brown, S.S., M.A., S.T.D., PhD, S.S.L

Rev James P.M. Walsh, S.J.
Rev Francis T. Gignac, S.J.
Reverend Lawrence Boadt, C.S.P.
Brother Aloysius Fitzgerald, F.S.C.

I’m missing tons, but these ones are all great Hebrew scholars, and a lot of them worked on the NAB bible throughout the years.

Oh and I almost forgot the greatest Catholic Hebrew scholar of all! The great Saint Jerome of Stridon.

 

[DaveBj]

Biblical Hebrew is a Semitic language, which means, for starters, that it is very different from the Indo-European languages that most of us speak, read, and write. This means that for us Westerners, it is a very difficult language language to acquire, and the process of acquisition will take a lot of time and study. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t bother, but I am saying that you will have to put in a LOT of effort before you approach anything resembling fluency.

D

 

[ratio1]

Why do you ask? Would it make any material difference to you as a student of the language? I don’t think so.

No it doesn’t, it’s just inconvenient. Most interlinear bibles uses KJV or NIV english translations. I wish they would use NAB or Douay-Rheims.
I also have to be very careful about any commentaries they provide.

 

[ratio1]

I am saying that you will have to put in a LOT of effort before you approach anything resembling fluency.

I agree with you if the goal is to speak and use Hebrew.
But my goal is not to speak Hebrew fluently, all I want is to study BIBLICAL Hebrew, in which case, there are only so many words in the Bible, and you don’t have to learn to speak and make new sentences, it’s just pure understanding what’s written which is much easier and I encourage EVERYONE who feels disposed to try. Because I think to understand the original Hebrew words is so much more beautiful and satisfying. There are lexicons to look up words quite easily and to be honest, one doesn’t even need to learn any Hebrew in depth [just have to learn a few rules and hints] to gain a MUCH GREATER understanding of the original language.