Is Ancient Greek or Hebrew Harder?

Question

I'm supposed to register for classes at Divinity School tomorrow, but I can't decide if I want my focus to be Old Testament studies or New Testaments studies.

I'm leaning towards Old Testament, but taking a Hebrew class has me terrified.

I took a Biblical Greek class last year and passed with flying colors---so hopefully I'd still be decent at it. I was an English and writing major in undergraduate college and did excellently in Spanish and French, so I think I have a knack for languages.

But which is harder: Hebrew or Greek? I might be able to do fine at Hebrew but I just hear it's a lot different than most other languages.

Answer 1

Well, honestly I don't speak either so I can't give you personal experience, but I'll try to compare them with the limited knowledge I have of them.

Though they both have a different script, the Greek script is much less alien than that of Hebrew, since it bears many similarities to the Latin script, so getting used to the Greek alphabet would be much easier than the Hebrew alphabet.

I also know that Ancient Greek has a very complex accent and pronunciation marking system--I don't know any Greek, but one of the

"renovations" of Modern Greek was to get rid of the system altogether, so I imagine it is difficult to master. Now, this isn't to say that Hebrew does not have a similar system, but I know for a fact that Greek does.

You also will be able to find a larger correlation between Greek vocabulary and English vocabulary, since Greek contributed quite a large number of (especially technical) words. Hebrew also contributed some words, but far fewer than Greek did.

Also note that I don't know anything at all about the evolution of Ancient Greek to Biblical Greek. However, I am fairly confident that the accent system was still in place since it arose during the Byzantine Era due to the tonal system of the language.

So, from what I know of the languages, Greek would seem easier, but that doesn't mean Greek would be more interesting to learn than Hebrew.

Good Luck  

Answer 2

Is it the alphabet or the grammar that intimidates you?

I think, if you passed Greek with flying colors, you have two things to look at...

1) you already have some experience with Greek, and continuing would be a good thing.

2) Hebrew would probably be just as easy, or almost as easy, for you.