Courses · Biblical Hebrew · Kindergarten to high school
Biblical Hebrew עִבְרִית
The language in which God gave the Law and the Prophets, the language of Moses and David, read right to left in the letters the scribes copied with such care for three thousand years. Our courses teach it the old way: the letters first, by sight, sound and story; then the vowel points and accents of the Masoretes; then the grammar that opens the text, until a high-school student reads Genesis 1 and Psalm 23 in the Hebrew of the Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete Hebrew Bible, with the King James Version beside it. This is the Hebrew of the Bible, not modern spoken Hebrew. A student who has met our Greek courses will find the same care for the words of Scripture.
Choose a grade · Kindergarten to Grade 8
Ages 5–6
Kindergarten
Shalom! The first letters by sight and sound, alef the ox, bet the house, gimel the camel, with songs, letter crafts, Creation’s It is good, and hands lifted in praise.
Ages 6–7
Grade 1
More letters and their pictures, hands that bless, the ox goad and the waters, lamps and eyes, mouths and harvest, from sunrise to sunset, sung, traced and acted out.
Ages 7–8
Grade 2
The whole alphabet through the alphabet psalm, look-alike letters and their dots, the first vowels, the first Bible words, and the scribes who copied every letter by hand.
Ages 8–9
Grade 3
Sowing and reaping, light and return, the full vowel chart and the shewa, names and days, and the first verse of the Bible read in Hebrew.
Ages 9–10
Grade 4
Reading fluently: syllables and the doubling dot, throat letters and hurried vowels, the verse marks, letters that count, and whole verses read aloud.
Ages 10–11
Grade 5
First grammar: the and and, he and she, one and many, little words of place, the words of Genesis 1, and the animals of the ark.
Ages 11–12
Grade 6
Describing words, I, you and he, this and that and of, the suffixes my, thy and his, and the shepherd psalm.
Ages 12–13
Grade 7
Roots, the perfect, the story verb and he said, Let there be light read in Genesis 1:3–5, and the seventh day of Genesis 2:1–3.
Ages 13–14
Grade 8
How the Hebrew Bible came to us, Hear, O Israel, blessings and Bible words, the translators from Jerome to Tyndale, and Psalm 23 as a capstone.
High school · Biblical Hebrew I
A full-year course for high-school students beginning Biblical Hebrew: 12 units of 3 lessons, one lesson a week for 36 weeks, four sessions of 40–50 minutes, with unit tests, a midterm and a final exam, and separate answer keys for the parent. A student who finished Grade 8 will know the letters, vowels and many words already and can move faster through the first units.
Grades 9–12
Biblical Hebrew I
A full-year first course in Biblical Hebrew: letters, vowels and accents, nouns and the construct chain, the suffixes, the whole verb system from the Qal perfect to the seven stems and the weak verbs, and the reading of Genesis 1:1–2:3 and Psalm 23 in the Hebrew of the Leningrad Codex, with Doré, Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Thomas Cole.
How every lesson works
Each course from kindergarten to grade 8 is a short course: 5 units of 2 lessons, one lesson a week, about one quarter of the school year, with three sessions a week that grow from 15–20 minutes in the early grades to 30–40 minutes from grade 5 on. Biblical Hebrew I is a full high-school year with four longer sessions a week.
- Warm-up. A few minutes of saying Hebrew out loud: letters, vowels, words and paradigms, with a puzzle to think about.
- Watch. A hand-picked YouTube video from an approved teaching channel, such as a seminary professor reading the lesson verse in Hebrew, with a note on when to watch it.
- Learn. The story, how Hebrew works, and the verse read word by word, in short sections a parent can read aloud, with a pronunciation guide for every new word.
- Picture study. A painting in every unit, Rembrandt, Doré, Michelangelo, Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Thomas Cole, to look at closely and talk about.
- Activity. The student makes something every week: letter cards, a scroll, a map of Eden, a stem chart, a chart of the days of creation.
- Hebrew notebook and flashcards. A notebook of letters, charts and verses copied right to left, and a flashcard deck that grows every lesson.
- Worked examples and practice. Reading, parsing and translation, easy through challenge, with answers to check.
Every lesson has a verse of the Hebrew Bible from the Westminster Leningrad Codex, a public-domain edition of the oldest complete Hebrew Bible, printed beside the exact words of the King James Version. The divine name is read Adonai, as the Masoretes directed, and printed LORD in the English.
Nothing needs to be bought. Activities use index cards, paper, pencil, crayons and things from around the house. Each unit also lists optional books and free resources.
Every course can also be downloaded as one printable PDF, with the video links printed in each lesson. Worksheets come with separate answer keys for the parent.
Videos open on YouTube. Every embedded video comes from a teaching channel approved for School Launch, but YouTube shows its own recommendations and ads around them, so parents should preview the videos and stay nearby.