The Narrow Task of Teaching Biblical Hebrew

by Chris Corwin, PhD

Is Biblical Studies in conflict with faith? This was not the question I was asked at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in a survey given to Ph.D. students. Rather, the question was: How do you handle the conflicts of biblical studies with your personal faith? 

My initial thought was: What conflict? Contrary to the assumption that there was a conflict, I felt a strong harmony between biblical studies and devotional reading of scripture. Seconds after my initial reaction, a list crossed my mind of friends and acquaintances who had "lost their faith" as a result of intellectual conflicts arising from their seminary training. This was what the survey was addressing.  

Reflecting on this today, I see the conflict as more societal than intellectual, both in the Academy (the University) and the Church. The Academy addresses the study of religion as a subset of the study of human thoughts and religious practices, and is theoretically "neutral" towards faith. However, the tone often tends to give a primary place to negative assessments of religion and personal faith. The Church (in the US, at least) says “yes” to both intellect and faith, yet far too often glosses over the intellect, or accepts it only as it serves up snappy arguments supporting church positions. Fortunately, there are also many exceptions to this, and I would cite New College Berkeley as one. Those in this exceptional category see the intellect as the gift of God given to every person on the planet. They endorse both "head knowledge" and "heart knowledge" while rejecting the false dichotomy between thinking and faith.  

But the sociological realities I've described affect my field of study. What, exactly, is Biblical studies? Ironically, Biblical studies is NOT the study of the Bible. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition: 

Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible. For its theory and methods, the field draws on disciplines ranging from archaeology, ancient history, cultural backgrounds, textual criticism, literary criticism, historical backgrounds, philology, and social science. 

"Academic application" of these secular fields of study is the key idea (I mean “secular” as a non-religious term). While the roots of these “diverse disciplines” go back to ancient times, the whole enterprise of their application to Biblical studies can be seen as a development of the Enlightenment, with a major intensification in the 20th century. 

I believe that this "secular" study is the gift of God, the source of all knowledge. Applying reason to the data available to us as natural creatures of God—without assuming doctrinal positions of the church derived from revelation—science and the scientific method have proved to be powerful tools for probing the mysteries of the universe in which we find ourselves. 

We would be remiss to neglect the use of these tools in our study of scripture, since scripture was written by people inspired by God, using human language, with the intent to communicate truth to humanity. Scripture parallels the incarnation of Christ, human and divine simultaneously present. Looking at the human side of scripture by using our scientific approaches yields critically important information.    

Consider just a little of what some of these “diverse disciplines” entail and have added to our understanding of scripture and the contexts in which they were originally written:

  • Archeology - The science of digging! An elaborate methodology of gradual, measured removal of dirt, debris, etc. with meticulous recording. Analysis of objects found using chemical analysis, x-rays, soil analysis, micro-biology. A reconstruction of the material culture, issues of dating, etc. 

  • Ancient history – Including recent finds of texts, such as Ras Shamara (1928), Qumran (1947), Nag Hammadi (1945), and Akkadian texts (deciphered in the mid-19th century). 

  • Linguistics – A field which encompasses poetry/literary theory/linguistics/and more.

In the last hundred years especially, the extent of human knowledge has exploded. Greater complexity has resulted in further subdivisions within the academic teaching of religion. In Biblical studies, there are more "basics" than can be grasped in a four-year degree.  

I have come to specialize in the teaching of Biblical Hebrew (much against my will!). While Hebrew was my main interest in entering the GTU, I imagined that I would learn all about the Bible, theology, history of the church, and perhaps even other religions of the world. (Yes, as my wife points out, "Chris, you really are in a world of your own world.”)  

Here is a condensation of one of my early conversations about my academic program: 

Advisor: What do you want to study? 

Me: Biblical Hebrew, especially the poetic texts. 

Advisor: OK, great, so Old Testament then. 

Me: No, I want to study both Old and New Testaments.

Advisor: No, you can't do both. In the past people did, but no longer.  

Me: And I want to do theology as well. 

Advisor: No, you cannot do both theology and Biblical studies. Those are separate areas, we don't mix them. 

So I picked a degree program in Hebrew Bible with a specialty in poetry (not a particularly hard choice for me). But I "secretly" continued reading theology and philosophy, acquiring expertise in NT Greek, as well as Church History, and the American poets. 

Let me make one thing clear: My advisors were right! Hebrew Bible was an incredibly challenging field focusing on 24 individual books, (in English 39 books), a host of OT intros from very diverse (often contradictory) viewpoints, and 5 required languages (including NT Greek, plus 4 more recommended languages which I studied as well). All that plus the frequent need for theology and history in the course of studying. 

I found acquiring knowledge of Biblical Hebrew daunting. Once at a meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in the 1990s, I was feeling discouraged after listening to scholars discuss texts in Hebrew so fluently that I had trouble following any of it. I walked through the convention center surrounded by thousands of scholars who seemed to enjoy everything. Then in a hallway I saw a young woman pushing an infant in a stroller. The thought struck me, “This baby could be the next greatest Hebrew scholar in the world.” That thought came to me as an encouragement from God: I was behind others, but years ahead of this kid!

Although reasonably prepared in Hebrew and Greek when entering the GTU, I had only weak beginnings of French and German (both required for the program) and soon struggled with a host of obstacles: new terms inconsistently used, a complex culture, and contradictory advice. At one point, I remember saying to myself, "I am going to remember just how hard this is when I’m a professor, and do a better job at teaching this than what I see here." A decade later, in the midst of teaching a class on a subject I by then considered simple, a student's complaint jarred me into the realization that I had forgotten how hard this same material had been for me.  

Biblical studies requires lifelong learning. I long to see this supported by Christian communities (New College Berkeley is such a combination of thought and piety, something perhaps akin to the idea of balance present in monastic communities). Biblical Hebrew forces one to slow down in reading, to puzzle over the possibilities of syntax and the lexicon, to realize that learning a dictionary definition of love or righteousness or justice is the beginning of grasping what the term actually means.

The Holy Spirit that inspired the biblical authors must be remembered as present with us as we seek to understand and interpret and apply scripture to our lives. This very much resembles the meditative practices of the spiritual disciplines of the Church. The notion of community links so tightly to this learning process, and it does lend itself to the environment in which I teach, composed of small groups of people reading together in Hebrew (or Greek) and allowing a diversity of viewpoints. This is the Church, the body of Christ. Biblical studies come alive in communities where God’s presence is central; where, as in monastic traditions, learning is connected to spirituality.

I close with a quote I had heard many times, but as though for the first time just before my entry into the Ph.D. program in Biblical Studies at the GTU: The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step (The Tao Te Ching). 

Chris Corwin (Ph.D.) is New College Berkeley’s Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies. This year he is teaching a year-long course in Biblical Hebrew.