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John Lawrence Aspden's avatar

Have you come upon Aleph with Beth? By all accounts the best designed ancient language course ever made. I tried it just to see what it was like, despite not having any reason to read Biblical Hebrew at all, and found it enchanting. For someone religious I imagine the experience of reading the actual Bible might be quite something!

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Jane Psmith's avatar

I’ll make a note of that for the distant future! I think old English will be my next language if I ever have time for a new one, but Hebrew has its attractions.

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John Lawrence Aspden's avatar

I loved the course, for the experience of learning a language as a child does. It just goes in easy with no real effort.

But also the bible in translation *reads differently* to the hebrew text. I'd never given any thought to what 'Lord of Hosts' meant, it's just something vicars say. But in Hebrew it's 'Lord of Armies', or 'Lord of Battles', like Wotan!

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wargamer's avatar

Going back to the start to read all your reviews; this substack is amazing. I dunno if you'll see these old comments, but I figured I'd ask: Would this be worthwhile for someone (like me) who doesn't study other languages? The stuff on the Bible and the challenge of converting Thucydides does sound neat but is maybe above my level of knowledge.

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Jane Psmith's avatar

I think so! I got a fair bit out of the chapters on languages I know nothing about.

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John Harmon's avatar

Delightful review. I'm currently a third of the way through Owen Barfield's History in English Words which is something like a guided tour of the archeological layers in the town you live in.

In response to footnote 2, I've read good things about God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson.

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Jane Psmith's avatar

Thank you! I’ll check them both out.

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