In the 1700's it was not unusual for an educated person to know Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee (Aramaic) and Latin.

At the time, Akkadian had not yet been deciphered, otherwise it most definitely would have been on the curriculum.

There is a vast library of Hebrew and Chaldee rabbinical works that have Latin translations - many works that even today do not have an English translation, (or a good English translation) have excellent scholarly Latin versions.

PRENDERGAST HEBREW MASTERY AUDIO COURSE

This is the main Hebrew language course at Latinum.

THE METHOD

This course uses Spanish and Portuguese (Western Sephardic) pronunciation.

How does Prendergast's Hebrew Mastery work? There is a carefully structured series of statements in English, which you need to immediately translate orally into Biblical Hebrew.

Each exercise starts with a simple phrase or sentence, and then builds the sentence up phrase by phrase and clause by clause, ending with a complex sentence.

A bell is sounded, followed by a brief pause, which should provide sufficient time for you to translate. Following the pause, a model translation is given. Pay close attention to your word order.

If you need more time, press pause. You should repeat the lesson until you find pausing unnecessary.

Prendergast designed this course with complete beginners in mind.

If you are a beginner, your progress will be very slow, as you will more or less need to memorise the answers. Prendergast assumes a beginner working on this course for at the minimum of an hour a day, and that only ten minutes of new exercises should be attempted per day, with the rest of the time spent in intensive review.