Reading Biblical Hebrew
Like Duolingo, but for Reading Biblical Hebrew. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Decoding the Letters and Vowels and Assembling Words into Scripture. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Reading Biblical Hebrew
- Biblical Hebrew script flows entirely from right to left across a page
- A Hebrew reader begins scanning at the right edge of a line and finishes on the left
- A Hebrew Bible opens from what English readers consider the back cover
- The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad containing 22 consonant letters
- Vowel sounds were originally unwritten and memorized or added later as auxiliary marks
- Letters like Alef, Bet, and Gimel are consonants, not English-style standalone vowels like A or E
- Five specific letters (Khaf, Mem, Nun, Pe, Tsade) change shape when they appear as the last letter of a word
- Most final (sofit) forms straighten and extend a long vertical tail that hangs below the baseline
- Final Mem closes completely into a neat square at the end of a word
- Dalet features a sharp 90-degree corner with a slight roof overhang, while Resh is rounded like an arch
- Bet has a flat floor extending past the vertical line, distinguishing it from the smooth curve of Kaf
- Mistaking a curved back for a sharp corner completely changes the root word being read
- Alef and Ayin make no distinct consonant buzz, click, or hiss like English letters; they are vocal pauses or glottal catches
- In practical reading, Alef and Ayin primarily act as silent frames that carry whatever vowel sound is attached to them
- Encountering an Alef with a vowel under it means sounding only the vowel itself
- The original Hebrew biblical text consisted purely of consonants and was considered too sacred to alter or insert letters into
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Reading Biblical Hebrew the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When you read a line of Biblical Hebrew, where do your eyes start and finish?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Reading Biblical Hebrew takes you
Learn to decode the ancient script of the Old Testament. Master the alphabet, vowel markings, and glued-together prefixes to sound out original scripture verse by verse.
- 1
Decoding the Letters and Vowels
- Sounding Out the Consonants
- Reading the Vowel Points
- 2
Assembling Words into Scripture
- Unpacking Glued-On Prefixes
- Reading Genesis 1:1 and Spotting Roots
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Reading Biblical Hebrew is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Reading Biblical Hebrew today.
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