Hebrew 103/303: Biblical Hebrew, First Semester
Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Fall 2008
Class: MW 2:30-3:45 (216 Ingraham), F 2:25-3:15 (VH 119) Location: 478/119 Van Hise
Instructor: Tim Mackie                                                          Email: tpmackie@wisc.edu
Office: 1336 Van Hise Hall                                                     Office Phone #: 262-8240
Office Hours: MW 3:45-4:45 or by appointment                    Home Phone #: 512-8999

            Welcome to Biblical Hebrew! The purpose of this course is to acquire a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew in order to read prose texts. Biblical Hebrew is the ancient Semitic language in which (most of) the Old Testament/Tanakh was written. Other texts written in ancient Hebrew are found in several hundred inscriptions, letters, and administrative documents discovered by archaeologists, as well as in the Dead Sea scrolls. Biblical Hebrew was used in ancient Israel from about 1000 B.C.E. to roughly the destruction of the second Jewish temple in 70 C.E.

This year (including the spring semester) we have four general learning goals:

1. to read Hebrew narrative by sight.
2. to see the literary importance of reading the Bible in Hebrew, not just in translation.
3. to become a skilled language learner.
4. to enjoy reading Hebrew.

REQUIREMENTS:

            1) Attendance is crucial for your success in this class. You are expected to come to class with all the assigned work completed and ready for active participation. If you must miss a class, it is your responsibility to get notes from another student and to be prepared for the next class session. Late arrivals and early departures are unacceptable.

            2) Every Monday we will go over a new lesson from the textbook. As part of your preparation for class you must read over the new lesson before class. Even if you don’t understand everything in it, our class time will be more productive if you have read through the material beforehand. You should be prepared to read the Hebrew examples aloud.

            3) Homework exercises from the textbook will be assigned for each class period. We will go over these assignments at the beginning of the next class period. Completing these assignments will be worth 15% of your grade. DO NOT LOSE POINTS HERE. Late assignments will not be accepted, except by special permission in case of emergencies.  I will drop 10% of the assignments at the end of the semester.

            4) Every Monday we will begin class with a brief 10 minute quiz focused on material covered the previous week. Because this is a language class, every quiz is cumulative (especially the vocabulary). The quiz will start at the beginning of the class, so do not be late. There will be no make-up quizzes (except at my discretion), but your lowest quiz score will be dropped.

            5) We will have a mid-term (Fri, Oct 17, 2:45 P.M.) and a final exam (Tues, Dec 16, 2:45 P.M.) Both exams will be cumulative. The midterm and final exams must be taken at the scheduled times, except in cases of emergency.

            6) Oral recitation: It is important that you gain the ability early on in your study of Biblical Hebrew to not only understand the grammar of the language and translate, but also to read Hebrew aloud fluently. To accomplish this you will prepare a text—either Numbers 6:22-27 or Deuteronomy 6:4-9—and read it for me during office hours (or by appointment). This assignment is due by Fri, Dec 5 (you may complete the assignment earlier in the semester).

A NOTE ON VOCABULARY AND MEMORIZATION:
The vocabulary of the Hebrew Bible includes roughly 10,000 words. During the fall and spring we will memorize almost all the words that occur 50 times or more in the Hebrew Bible (~739 words). With each new lesson, one of the first things you should do is make vocabulary flash cards. You should also make cards for relevant grammatical forms, as discussed in class. You can buy blank flashcards of various shapes and sizes at the UW Bookstore.

CLASS PARTICIPATION AND PREPARATION:
Classes will follow a consistent pattern. First, we will go over the assigned exercises. You should be prepared to read the Hebrew exercises fluently and translate from the Hebrew (not just reading your English translation!). I don’t expect you to necessarily have all the right answers, but I do expect that you have given it a good-faith effort. If you cannot figure something out, try and identify exactly what’s causing your confusion. We will not always have time to go over every exercise in class, so tell me which ones would be most helpful for us to go over together. Second, we will go over any new material (you should have read the new lesson before class). Third, we will review old material from previous weeks.

COMMUNICATION:
1) I have set up a course email list for our use. The address is: hebrst103-1-f08@lists.wisc.edu
Please feel free to use this list to communicate with your fellow students, arrange study groups, ask questions, or do anything else related to Biblical Hebrew.

2) I will occasionally post files for download on the Learn@UW website (http://learnuw.wisc.edu).

GRADING: (approximate %)                                        Grading Scale: A 93-100 (Outstanding)
Daily Assignments: 15%                                              AB 89-92 (Exceptional)
Quizzes: 25%                                                              B 82-88 (Good)
Midterm Exam: 25%                                                    BC 79-81 (Fair enough)
Final Exam: 25%                                                         C 70-78 (Adequate)
Oral Reading: 10%                                                      D 60-69 (Marginal)
Extra Credit (Equivalent to 1 Daily Assignment)            F 0-59 (Don’t even ask!)

Extra Credit
Attend the first Center for Jewish Studies Lecture of the year:
“The Great Code: The Greek Bible and the Humanities”
Professor Peter Gentry
Monday, September 22nd, 7:30 pm – Grainger Hall
Compose a short lecture interaction assignment of one typed page, due in class on Mon, Sept 29.
(1) Summarize the main point of the lecture.
(2) Write at least one paragraph reacting to the lecture, for example,  with  a question, a critical
comment, or your personal response..

TEXTBOOKS:
Cook, John A., and Robert D. Holmstedt. 2005. Ancient Hebrew: A Student Grammar. Unpublished.
            Pick up at Bob’s Copy Shop (the one by Subway on 1401 University Avenue) [around $20]

Recommended: Long, Gary A. Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Hebrew: Learning Biblical
Hebrew Grammatical Concepts through English Grammar. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.
[College Library Reserves: PJ 4567.3 L66 2002]

If you have trouble accessing this page, contact: Chris Dargis (cadargis@wisc.edu)
Latest revision date: 8/29/2008

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