Evangelicals are quickly losing their edge on understanding the Word of God. There is the departure of the "learning" of Hebrew and Greek by those who say they want to teach God’s Word. Pastors particularly no longer have an interest in New Testament Greek in order to exegete the Scriptures from the pulpit. If this is so, how much more acute is the loss of interest in knowing the Hebrew language of the Old Testament? Pastors no longer have the calling to truly know the Bible. They are now cheerleaders and coaches whose job it is to make people feel good but not necessarily lead them into God’s Word so that they can grow spiritually.
Most historians have forgotten that the Old Testament was a mysterious and hidden book in the years just before the Reformation. The story of how Hebrew, and Old Testament studies, became prominent must be told. No teacher of the Word of God can ignore the Old Testament that lays the foundation for the New! And that means then, the study of Hebrew! The revival of Hebrew is a marvelous story of the providence of God during the Reformation period.
In the early sixteenth century, Germany and all of Europe, was in the dark ages as far as learning and the humanitarian arts went. The exception was Italy. John Reuchlin (circa 1455- 1522?) of Pforzheim, along with his contemporary Erasmus of Rotterdam, would break the hold of darkness. They both specialized in requiring the knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin. But Reuchlin went further and devoted himself to the study of Hebrew, after the pattern of the early church father Jerome.
While staying in Linz, Germany, Reuchlin met the imperial Jewish court physician to Emperor Frederick III, Jacob Loans. This Jewish scholar taught Reuchlin the Hebrew language and literature. Reuchlin devoted every hour to its study and mastered it thoroughly. In order to follow up with his personal excitement, he wrote a small book entitled The Wonder Word in which he wrote, "The language of the Hebrews is simple, uncorrupted, holy, terse and vigorous; God confers in it direct with men, and men with angels, face to face." Reuchlin was appointed an ambassador of the rule of the Palantine to the court of Pope Alexander VI from 1498 to 1500, at which time he studied more of the Hebrew language from a Jewish scholar residing in Rome, Obadiah Sforno of Cesena. Reuchlin sat at the feet of this great man and had no problem receiving instruction from a Jew, which was a rare attribute for a Christian at that time!
As far as is known, Reuchlin was the only Christian in all of Europe sufficiently familiar with Hebrew at the time. Friends urged him to write a Hebrew grammar to enable others to study the Old Testament as well. In God’s sovereignty, the results were astounding spiritually speaking for the revival of the study of Scripture. The grammar book aroused a taste for Hebrew studies in a large circle of scholars who then devoted themselves to studying it. These studies supplied a new factor towards the Lutheran Reformation. A number of disciples of Reuchlin, such as Sebastian Munster and Widmannstadt, would follow in his footsteps and raise the study of Hebrew to the level of Greek. The stage was being set for a fuller comprehension of all of the Word of God!
The twist in this story has to do with Reuchlin. While he fell in love with Hebrew and the Old Testament studies, he still had strong "left-over" prejudices against the Jewish people. He looked upon them as "barbarous" and devoid of all artistic taste, superstitious, mean and depraved. He had a through-going hatred for them like Jerome. At the same time his Hebrew grammar was published, he came out with another book to show how the Jews were blind in their unbelief. He refused to see all the evil that had been poured out upon them by Christendom, not by true biblical Christianity! Strangely, while he held this intellectual prejudice from his youth, and by what the Catholic Church had told him, he held to a personal affection for those Jews he knew personally. He found that many Jews were better than Christians, and his sense of justice did not allow him to let wrong by showered down upon them—if he could help it!
Reuchlin had been given high honors and had been made a court noble by Emperor Frederick. Later Emperor Maximilian appointed him as a counselor and judge. The intellectuals of Germany in the field of the humanities almost worshiped and deified him! There was never any accusation of heresy against him by the Catholic officials. But along came the most evil of the orders within the Roman hierarchy, the Dominicans of Cologne, Germany, who used a subtle agent by the name of Pfefferkorn. Though the study of Greek and Latin was permissible, Hebrew would have a corruptive, Judaizing influence, and, the Hebrew text of the Old Testament could replace the corrupted Latin Vulgate that had replaced it. The Inquisition of the Catholic Church could not directly persecute Reuchlin, but he could be kept in their "black book" of suspected reformers who could turn against the established Church.
Sent by the Dominicans, Pfefferkorn came to Reuchlin and invited him to help the Church interpret various Jewish Hebrew writings in order to find heresy. He was to be a confederate in the venomous schemes of the Church against the Jews. Though Reuchlin declined to help he still approved of destroying the Jews because he believed stories against them that they had sacrificed Christian children in order to obtain blood for their Passover meals. (This was never proven objectively but remained as an emotional accusation against Jewish communities.)
The Jews of the German city of Frankfort knew of the hatred of the Dominicans. They sent an elder, Jonathan Levi Zion, to advocate their case with the Emperor Maximilian. There were many Christians advocating for the Jews, such as the representative of the archbishop of Frankfort and the Margrave of Baden, Germany. Because the Jews had been granted certain freedoms previously, their supporters thought there would be no interference against them, and against the publishing of their religious books. The Emperor Maximilian vacillated but came out against the Jews. They were to give up all of their religious books found in the homes. After some resistance Maximilian issued another mandate in 1509 and ordered the books given up.
Over fifteen hundred books were confiscated and the Christian German communities did nothing! But various German princes were for the Jews, along with even the archbishop of Frankfort. Maximilian backed down in 1510 and ordered that the books be returned and that a study be initiated to see if the books were seditious against Christianity. The triumph for the Jewish communities came too soon. A "holy" wafer was stolen from a church and was supposed to be sold to the Jews in Brandenburg. Many Jews were arrested, tortured, and burned at the stake. It was a step backwards for the Jews as a whole.
Reuchlin was finally asked to evaluate the Jewish writings because he knew Hebrew, as few other Christian scholars did. He said their writings were not to be "mistreated." They were not detrimental to Christianity and were actually indispensable to Christian theology. He concluded something surprising. The books, such as the Talmud and the Kabbala (the Jewish mystic writings) should not be confiscated but instead, in every German university there should be two Hebrew scholars and professors appointed for ten year terms, who might be asked to teach both modern Hebrew and biblical Hebrew as well. However behind his thinking was that by this gesture, the Jews might be convicted to embrace Christianity. Resistance for learning Hebrew continued for many years, until the period of the Reformation.
Martin Luther attacked what was going on in the Catholic Church. The Church was after him and an order had gone out for his capture and execution at the stake. But he escaped with the help of many who saw the light of the gospel and joined him as "protestants." At first, Luther’s Reformation affected the Jews but slightly. While the Catholics and Protestants were fighting each other the persecution of the Jews experienced a pause. For a moment Luther defended the Jews. He wrote:
This rage against the Jews is still defended by some silly theologians and they say
These positive words of Luther, for the moment at least, had not been heard by the Jewish communities for over one thousand years. Many hot-headed Jews saw his statement as an open door for converting Luther. They were overly enthusiastic that this unexpected revulsion had dealt a blow to the Roman Church and its idolatrous worship of images and relics. Now there would be a speedy downfall of Rome followed by the approaching redemption of Israel’s Messiah! While this did not happen, to a degree, the Jewish community gained much by what was happening in the Reformation, i.e., in the early days of the Reformation.
Teachers of Hebrew were now sought in all of the major universities of Europe. Young and old did not hesitate to seek out Jews to teach them Hebrew. Friendly connections were made between the Hebrew teachers and the Christians. Many prejudices died out. The principle teacher of Hebrew to Christians was a Hebrew grammarian by the name of Elias Levita (1468-1549). He had arrived in Rome from Padua, Italy, and became a teacher of Hebrew to Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo who brought him into his house as his personal instructor. Many other Bishops and statesmen studied under him, though he drew criticism from his Jewish brothers. But he pointed out that the Christians studying with him would become the greatest defenders of the Jews. Other Jewish scholars followed and more and more Christian learned men studied Hebrew.
In time, and through the Reformation, Hebrew became a necessary branch of biblical and theological studies. Luther himself learned Hebrew in order to better understand the Old Testament. He would translate from his seclusion in Wartburg the Old Testament Hebrew, and the New Testament Greek, into German. His German translation of the Bible from the original languages is still with us today!
The king of France, Francis I, brought the Bishop of Corsica, Augustin Justiniani, an able Hebrew scholar to come to his country and establish Hebrew studies. The king was truly interested in Hebrew and invited Elias Levita also to France to fill the professorship of Hebrew at the University of Rheims, but he declined. At Rheims, the French students were so enthusiastic they went even further and attempted to speak Hebrew in class. Lacking good Hebrew grammar books, the effort was laborious and incomplete. Three hundred years earlier the University of Paris had a Hebrew grammar written by a Jew by the name of Maimuni, but the Catholics had the book burned. Now the French students interested in Hebrew were completely dependent on the Jewish scholars. They could not take a single step without them.
However the times would change.
Translations of both the Old Testament and New Testament spread across Europe. The Guttenburg printing press helped turn out thousands of copies in many European languages. The laymen for the first time could read God’s Word as translated from the languages in which it was written. A breath of fresh air was wafted on men of all classes and social positions. The demand for Hebrew Bibles was so great that a Jewish scholar, Daniel Bomberg, undertook this great work of publishing the Old Testament. Jewish scholars came along with commentaries—men such as Rashi, Ibn-Ezra, Kimchi, Gersonides, and others.
Though Protestant divinity schools were turning liberal around 150 years after the time of Luther, Latin, Hebrew, and Greek were required of anyone going into the ministry. Prior to the American Revolution, all of the schools of theology, in Europe and in America, required thoroughness in the biblical languages. This heritage of knowing God’s Word from the original languages came down to all of the Evangelical schools.
Among many giants of the biblical languages that could be named are: Archibald Alexander (1772-1851), Robert Dick Wilson (1856-1930), Charles Feinberg (1909-1995), Merrill F. Unger (1909-1980).
Alexander was the first full-time professor of Presbyterian Princeton Seminary. He taught both Hebrew and Greek and wrote Old Testament language commentaries on Psalms and Isaiah. Robert Dick Wilson taught at the Presbyterian Western Theological Seminary, then Princeton from 1900 to 1929. He relished teaching Hebrew but also knew about fifteen other ancient languages.
Gleason Archer was also a well-respected linguist. His Old Testament Introduction volume is well received. Feinberg was from an intellectual Jewish family. He was a brilliant Hebrew scholar who received his Ph.D. from John Hopkins University in Old Testament and Semitic Languages. I was privileged to study Old Testament Bible books under his teaching. Dr. Unger also graduated with a Ph.D. from John Hopkins in Old Testament. He made Hebrew come alive in the classroom. He gave to me a lasting taste of the language which is still with me today!
The study of Hebrew, and the love of the language, is now dying. Schools are requiring less hours of both Hebrew and Greek. Soon the men planning on the ministry will be impotent to make the Word of God clear from the pulpit. Emotionalism will rule in the sermons. This is exactly what happened in the Middle Ages. Because the explanation of Scripture had died, the Church depended on music, color, candles, robes, ceremony, to keep the flock coming to the cathedrals.
Coming back to Luther, his statement about the pastor and the biblical languages is very important. He wrote:
Though the faith and the Gospel may be proclaimed by simple preachers without
