It’s 9am on a Monday morning, and I’m sitting in a classroom right now trying to translate something very similar to this, in fact, possibly this very text. Of course, I don’t have Accordance. But I do have the wonderful ‘little’ book the BDB. Still, it’s a pain in the ass. We have 2 large chunks to translate that we *should* be familiar with, and then one smaller passage that we have to do some exegesis on. Goodness. I don’t really know what to expect. But then I’ll be done with Hebrew and my exegesis course. Now I just have to take Greek this summer at Columbia and then pass the Hebrew Exegesis Ordination exam and then I’ll be done with these languages.
It’s actually fun to know that you can read Hebrew. I know I’ll forget it soon…but, for right now, I’m enjoying being able to read and semi-understand this stuff. Still, it’s a pretty painful aspect of the whole ordination process. What good does it do to make us (Presbyterian) students take both Greek and Hebrew and do exegesis in them, just so that we’ll forget the languages within a few years of being out of seminary. And don’t tell me “I’m going to try and keep my language up” or “I’m going to do some Hebrew every day or week” – it just doesn’t happen. Unless you’re going on for a Ph.D. or something, you’ll forget your language. I’ve talked with enough pastors. You forget it. You might remember enough to figure out how to use the BDB again, or insert a cool “This word means X in Hebrew” in your sermon (even though no one is really even that impressed, and if they are, they’re impressed for about the amount of time that it takes you to explain it). But we have to do this to get ordained. Does that make sense to anyone?
UPDATE: Sweet. Hebrew DONE. The exam was actually easy. We had to translate a chunk from Genesis 22 (when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac) and then a passage from Numbers (which, the top of line of the scanned portion above was actually on it). Then we had a sight-translation on the call of Jeremiah and then a little essay to write on that. Done. Pretty quick too, I was ALL OVER that Genesis 22 passage. I’m rockin’ out to Imogen Heap right now…seriously, I love it when you are heading toward the end of finals week…starts to feel good…