Dr. Vern Steiner has privately tutored Leo Bykerk in Hebrew throughout his Propaedeutic Year at St. Gregory the Great Seminary and into his second year.
Q. Leo, you studied Hebrew at Hillsdale – what sparked your interest in learning Hebrew?
A (LB). While at Hillsdale, I fell in love with using the Psalms in prayer. Then, I saw that the college offered a course in Hebrew, and I was shocked to realize that I could be reading the Psalms in their original language with about a year worth of studying. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, and it has produced more fruit than I could have imagined.
Q. Hebrew isn’t easy to learn – what do you enjoy about it? How does it influence your understanding of Scripture?
A (LB). There are a ton of things I love about reading the Old Testament in Hebrew. First of all, since I am pretty unfamiliar with the language, I have to slow down a lot, giving my attention to each word in a verse. This forces me to really sit down in the scriptures and absorb a lot of details I’ve missed just reading it in English. Also, the language is very poetic and beautiful, which draws the eye to a lot of small, interesting details you didn’t even know about when reading in English. One last thing Vern has shown me is the importance of reading the words aloud, really allowing the sounds of the language to enter my ears, mind, and heart. I think that speaking the word of God aloud like that shapes me in a powerful way, even if it is more of a passive thing to do.
Q. How did you and Vern get connected to start being tutored?
A (LB). Vern taught us both semesters of my first seminary year, and I approached him early on to see if he would be willing to help me keep learning Hebrew. He was really excited about the idea, and next thing I knew, we were reading Hebrew together regularly.
Q. How has learning Hebrew help in your propaedeutic year of seminary, specifically in your courses on Scripture?
A (LB). I think that learning Hebrew with Vern has opened my eyes pretty significantly to the power of Scripture. The best way to describe it is that the scripture has begun to move from being written on the page to being written on my heart. The more time I spend reading and turning it over in prayer and with Vern, the more I am amazed and changed by it. The images and ideas have started to make a home in my imagination, and they are certainly bringing me to understand the love of God for me.
Q. What are you looking forward to in your next year of seminary?
A (LB). Now that the propaedeutic year is over, next semester begins my first year of real academic work at the seminary. I’m most excited to allow the spiritual lessons I have learned from the propaedeutic year to direct my studies. Ideally, just as I’ve seen in my study of the scriptures, all of my academic work should lead to stronger union with God.
Q. Vern, what do you enjoy about tutoring Leo?
A (VS). Leo has such a warm and receptive spirit toward the Lord and his Word, with a sincere desire to continue learning and growing. Often in our reading sessions we experience unexpected moments of the Lord’s obvious presence, opening our eyes and speaking to our hearts in fresh ways.
Q. How do you approach learning and teaching Hebrew?
A (VS). Always in a receptive spirit of prayer and devotion. There’s something about directly encountering the Lord’s voice in the Bible’s original languages that’s difficult to explain to anyone who has not experienced it. We are wonderfully blessed with good and faithful English versions of the Bible; but no translation is able to capture the richness and fullness of the original, as language transfer always entails a certain loss. I like to describe it as the contrast between watching a movie in color vs. black and white, or listening to music on a Bose system vs. a cell phone. This is not to imply that every Christian must learn Hebrew and Greek, but that those who have been called to do so should find ways to share the blessings for the benefit of others.
Q. How did you develop a curriculum for Leo?
A (VS). Since Leo had already studied Hebrew at Hillsdale, we did not have to begin from square one. We were able to hit the ground running. He had already read the first chapter of Jonah in his previous course, so we began there—rereading that chapter, reviewing basic grammatical and syntactical concepts (especially the Hebrew verb system, which is quite elaborate), and continuing slowly but progressively to the end of the book. (Jonah is a delightful read because it exposes us to the two primary Old Testament genres: prose and poetry.) After completing Jonah, we decided together to begin reading Genesis.
Q. What book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew does reading in Hebrew help you connect with the most? Leo mentioned Psalms specifically – is there a book you’ve had a similar experience of slowing down with in particular that’s stood out?
A (VS). It’s hard to narrow this to one book. Definitely the early chapters of Genesis and the books of Ruth, Esther, and Jonah, in addition to Psalms, of course. For many years I have told my students that my favorite book of the Bible is the one I happen to be reading, studying, or teaching at the time. My favorite at the moment is Genesis!
Q. How did you learn Hebrew?
A (VS). My interest began fifty years ago, in a graduate seminary class in 1974. Since then, I have been blessed to study under four or five outstanding Hebrew professors, including Dr. John Sailhamer, a leading authority on the Hebrew verb system (who, incidentally, had memorized the entire Hebrew Bible!). Dr. Sailhamer served as my doctoral supervisor, and, prior to his untimely death, he and I were co-authoring an elementary Hebrew grammar (which remains unpublished). As part of my daily devotion, I read a portion of Hebrew Scripture every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning—a practice I have continued without interruption for more than 40 years. I love the language, but above all the One who chose to reveal himself through it.
Leave a Reply