Purdue News

June 2, 2000 Biblical Hebrew course offered again on West Lafayette campus WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A course in biblical Hebrew will be offered again this fall at Purdue University, and Purdue students, as well as people from the Greater Lafayette community, are invited to register. The course will be taught by Stuart Robertson, a Presbyterian pastor with a doctorate in Hebrew from the Annenberg Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. "If students want to get the meaning of the Hebrew Bible, here's the way," said Robertson. Every lesson is built on a passage from the Bible. Biblical Hebrew, FLL 101B, will meet from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning on Aug. 22 and will run through Dec. 7. As a follow-up to the first course, a second semester of biblical Hebrew will be offered in the spring. "The final exam in the second semester found the students able to do very well in translating two ten-verse passages of the Bible, one of which they'd not seen before," said Robertson. The course is sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program at Purdue. "We are hoping many of the students who are already signed up for an English course in the Bible as literature will also sign up for the biblical Hebrew course," said Sandor Goodhart, director of the Jewish Studies Program. The biblical Hebrew course will be a good supplement to the Bible as literature course, said Goodhart. "While it can be challenging to learn a new alphabet, Biblical Hebrew last year was a fun course," said Robertson. "It's remarkably like working on a puzzle in class. Class members help one another and the instructor is very patient." No previous knowledge of Hebrew is necessary in order to take the course, Robertson said. Members of the community who are interested in registering for the course should contact the Purdue Office of Admissions at (765) 494-1776. The fee for Indiana residents is $417. Undergraduates who wish to register for the course should contact their academic advisors. The registration deadline is Aug. 18. Students who register after the deadline will be charged a late fee. Sources: Stuart Robertson, (765) 497-2162, boo@wcic.cioe.com Alice Wenger, (765) 494-7965, awenger@sla.purdue.edu Writer: Cynthia Sequin, (765) 494-2073, csequin@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page