I have been teaching Biblical Hebrew at my church over the last month and a half. My class consists of 4 students that are members of my church (the youngest student is going into the 7th grade, and the oldest is a college professor). I am thrilled to be teaching them and I believe that they are excited by the prospect of learning to read the 1st Testament in its original language. So with that being said, I am a bit stumped pedagogically and would love the advice of those who have taught biblical Hebrew in the past (although, I would love to hear advice from anyone who has learned biblical Hebrew, as well).
I will be introducing verbs in a couple of weeks or so, and I don’t know if I should teach verbs the way I had learned them, or if I should be a bit more open regarding the translation possibilities of yiqtol and qatal. On one hand, I would love to have a discussion regarding tense, mood and voice, but on the other hand, I don’t want to overwhelm anyone at this point in their studies (which such a discussion would likely do). When I first began learning Hebrew I was taught to treat yiqtol generically as the future tense and qatal generically as past tense. It wasn’t until later in my language training that I learned that there were more options than just that. I turned out ok, but I was floored and a bit confused when I learned the yiqtol and qatal could be translated differently.
I see the benefits of a tense, mood, voice discussion (I think Duane Garrett’s grammar does an excellent job with this. Side note: I will also be reviewing his grammar within the next week or so.), but I wonder if this discussion is useful for 1st year students. I am leaning towards telling them about the various interpretive options so that they are aware of the options, but having them translate the words generically (as I had learned to do).
What are your thoughts? I want to hear from Mandy, Brooke, DanielandTonya, John, and any one else who has an opinion on this topic.