10.4.2012 LUTHER IV - HEBREW

72.last  ...'so far as hebrew is concerned, L always remained a self made man. he was well aware of this and remarks that he learned more through a faithful reading of the old testament than through linguistic study.
'i have learned more hebrew by continuing to read and by comparing one text with another, than by working with a grammar. i am no hebrew student according to the rules of linguistics, for i go my won way, unbound.
he means by this that he is not satisfied with a formal knowledge of the hebrew, but seeks rather to penetrate to the essence of the language. often he expresses himself about the uniqueness of hebrew:
'the hebrew language has its own flavor, which distinguishes it from greek, latin and german. it is the best of all and richest in vocabulary. it does not need to 'beg' as do other languages that do not have a word of their won for many things and who must therefore borrow parts of other words and combine them into a new one. in german we sometimes make twenty such combined words out of one,
eg. with the word laufen.
to this we add parts of other words and speak of
entlaufen
verlaufen
umlaufen
belaufen
zulaufen
ablaufen
weglaufen
einlaufen, etc.
in contrast the hebrew language has no such artificially constructed words, but possesses a separate and special word for each thing. in addition, we germans use one word for many meanings. with the word 'heart' we mean a part of our bodies. but we say also that someone has no heart, and then mean that he is afraid and fearful. we also use the expression 'my heart tells me'. and 'his heart burns in him', by which we mean that he is angry. the hebrew, however, has for all such cases a distinctive word. and yet this language is simple and at the same time majestic and glorious. it uses few words, but says much through them.