Read the Old Testament in the language God gave it
Biblical Hebrew Roots takes you from the aleph to the tav — alphabet, grammar, vocabulary, and real translation — so you can open your Hebrew Bible and read it yourself, not just trust someone else's rendering.

My goal is simple: to hand you the tools to open your Hebrew Bible and never need to take my word for it again.
— Charles Owens

What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Read and vocalize Biblical Hebrew text using the full aleph-bet and vowel pointing (Masoretic nikud)
- Parse core Hebrew noun and verb forms, including construct chains and the binyanim verb stems
- Build a working vocabulary of the 500 most-frequent Old Testament Hebrew words
- Translate key narrative, poetic, and prophetic passages directly from the Hebrew Bible
- Identify how grammatical nuance and word choice shape the meaning of familiar Scripture passages
- Use a Hebrew lexicon and interlinear tools independently to continue deepening your study
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 29 lessons

The Hebrew Alphabet and Vowel System
Builds the foundational reading skills needed to recognize, write, and vocalize every letter and vowel sign in Biblical Hebrew.
- 1.1The Aleph-Bet: Consonants and Their FormsIncluded
- 1.2Begadkefat Letters and DageshIncluded
- 1.3Masoretic Vowel Pointing: Short and Long VowelsIncluded
- 1.4Syllable Structure and Hebrew PhonologyIncluded
- 1.5Reading Practice: Genesis 1 AloudIncluded
Hebrew Nouns, Gender, and the Article
Covers the core noun system — gender, number, the definite article, and the inseparable prepositions that glue Hebrew prose together.
- 2.1Masculine and Feminine NounsIncluded
- 2.2The Definite Article and Its RulesIncluded
- 2.3Inseparable Prepositions and the Conjunction VavIncluded
- 2.4Adjectives: Agreement and PredicationIncluded
- 2.5The Construct Chain (Smichut)Included
Hebrew Pronouns and the Verb System: Foundations
Introduces independent pronouns, pronominal suffixes, and the two primary Hebrew verb conjugations — the Qal perfect and imperfect.
- 3.1Independent Pronouns and DemonstrativesIncluded
- 3.2Pronominal Suffixes on NounsIncluded
- 3.3The Hebrew Root System and Lexicon NavigationIncluded
- 3.4Qal Perfect: Parsing and TranslationIncluded
- 3.5Qal Imperfect and the Vav-ConsecutiveIncluded
The Binyanim: Derived Verb Stems
Surveys the seven major verb stems (binyanim) and how each modifies a root's meaning, voice, and intensity.
- 4.1Niphal: The Passive and Reflexive StemIncluded
- 4.2Piel and Pual: Intensive Active and PassiveIncluded
- 4.3Hiphil and Hophal: Causative StemsIncluded
- 4.4Hithpael: Reflexive-Intensive StemIncluded
- 4.5Weak Verb Classes: Gutturals, Nun, and Hollow RootsIncluded
Vocabulary and Interlinear Tools
Builds a working 500-word Old Testament vocabulary and equips students to use lexicons and digital tools for independent ongoing study.
- 5.1High-Frequency Vocabulary: Words 1–150Included
- 5.2High-Frequency Vocabulary: Words 151–350Included
- 5.3High-Frequency Vocabulary: Words 351–500Included
- 5.4Using BDB, HALOT, and Interlinear ToolsIncluded
Translation: Narrative, Poetry, and Prophecy
Applies every grammatical and lexical skill to translating and interpreting representative passages from the three major Old Testament genres.
- 6.1Translating Hebrew Narrative: The Joseph StoryIncluded
- 6.2Hebrew Poetry: Parallelism and the PsalmsIncluded
- 6.3Prophetic Hebrew: Isaiah and AmosIncluded
- 6.4Grammatical Nuance and Interpretive PayoffIncluded
- 6.5Continuing Your Hebrew Study IndependentlyIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Seminary students
Building the Hebrew grammar foundation that exegesis courses will assume you already have.
Pastors & preachers
Enriching sermon preparation by reading the text in Hebrew and catching nuances no English translation can fully convey.
Lifelong Bible students
Serious lay readers who have spent decades in the Word and are ready to go deeper than any commentary can take them.
Faith-curious explorers
Spiritually motivated learners drawn to the history, culture, and original language of the Hebrew scriptures for the first time.
Jewish tradition learners
Students approaching the Tanakh from a Jewish devotional or educational context who want to read it as it was written.
Theology & religion educators
Teachers and Christian education directors who want to engage original-language scholarship and pass that depth on to their students.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Charles Owens
If you have ever read a passage of Scripture and quietly wondered, "But what does it really say?" — then you already understand why Biblical Hebrew matters. You have sensed, even if you could not name it, that something alive is waiting just beneath the surface of the English page.
I know that feeling well. It is the feeling that drove me into this language, and it is the feeling I want to honor in every student who walks through the door of this school. Learning Biblical Hebrew is not primarily an academic exercise. It is a form of attention — a discipline of drawing closer to the text on its own terms, in the vocabulary and grammar and rhythm that the original writers chose.
That said, attention without method goes nowhere. Hebrew has a reputation for being forbidding: an alphabet that runs right to left, a vowel system added by medieval scribes, verb stems that multiply in seven directions, roots that stretch and hollow and shift depending on the sounds around them. None of that is mythology. The language is genuinely intricate. But intricate is not the same as impossible, and every one of those features rewards study in proportion to the effort you give it. The begadkefat rules begin to feel natural. The construct chain starts to feel elegant. The binyanim become a key that opens the verb rather than a wall that blocks it.
What I have tried to build here is a school that respects your intelligence, respects the text, and never loses sight of the destination: you, sitting with your Hebrew Bible open, parsing a verb form, identifying a construct chain, hearing the poetry of the Psalms in the language in which it was composed. We move from the alphabet through to independent translation of narrative, poetry, and prophecy — and we do it with real passages from Genesis, the Joseph story, the Psalms, Isaiah, and Amos, not invented practice sentences.
When you finish this school you will not simply have completed a grammar course. You will know how to use a Hebrew lexicon, how to navigate interlinear tools, and how to keep growing on your own — because the goal has never been to make you dependent on this school, but to make you fluent enough to be independent of it. That is the payoff. I cannot wait to help you get there.
— Charles Owens
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- 6 modules, 29 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed