The social setting of Biblical Hebrew in the church : some implications for seminary teachers

Here is the dilemma instructors in the biblical languages face: How can they teach for skills that will have a lasting and decisive effect on the students throughout their ministries? In considering how to incorporate effective methods into a course it would be helpful to reflect on the ministry situation itself. That is, how will students use their knowledge in real-life settings? Modern linguists advocate a similar approach which demands knowledge of the social setting of language as a communication event in order for the language teacher to organize a useful course. The question of how the biblical languages function in the church, then, has great importance for teachers of both Greek and Hebrew, but it has enhanced significance for those who teach Hebrew. Of the two languages Hebrew tends to be used less than Greek, a fact reflected in the general tendency for seminaries to require less Hebrew than Greek. Therefore I propose to examine the social setting or function of Hebrew within the church and to consider some implications for how the language ought to be taught in seminary. Admittedly my observations are impressionistic, and there also is a need to obtain hard data for more objective verification