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Reading the Hebrew Bible course

Reading the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible in the language in which it was written is to open a window into a different world and times.

We are as a culture more than 3,000 years distant from the nomadic tribes who wandered the Middle East from amongst whom emerged a radical new understanding of Creation and the Creator.

Learning to read Biblical Hebrew is an adventure in difference. Ancient Hebrew is linguistically distant from European languages and employs structures and techniques to impart meeting which are foreign to English speakers. This introduces the student to Biblical Hebrew and lays the groundwork for further study.

The course works with fragments of scripture from the start and leads the student gently through the Hebrew text into a growing understanding of how Jewish narratives are constructed and how their writers thought of their world and expressed that understanding.

This Biblical Hebrew language course is both fun and intensive, and will bring the student through the early stages of learning a language which is both radically different and beautifully rich in its theology and world view.

About the tutor

Rabbi Rachel Montagu teaches Biblical Hebrew for a diverse range of audiences, including CityLit in London. She was ordained as a rabbi at the Leo Baeck College in London in 1984. She has a Classics degree from Cambridge University.

Details

Dates & Times

10 - 15 Aug 2025

Other Notes

This Biblical Hebrew language course is both fun and intensive.

The week will take you through the early stages of learning a language which is both radically different and beautifully rich in its theology and world view.

There are residential and non-residential options.

courses@sarum.ac.uk

What our students say

PhD Research Programmes

Visual Artist Claire Reed

The complex and sometimes fractious relationship between contemporary art and religion has intrigued me throughout my art career, informing my direction as an artist. It has led me to work in sacred spaces with their immediate and wider communities, to study an MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture at Sarum College, and recently to become artist–researcher at Leo Baeck College of Jewish scholarship and learning.

My aim is to examine the extent to which this creative approach might generate fruitful inter-religious theological insights within a Jewish and Christian ministry training context.

Sarum College combines an open-minded embrace of the imagination and the arts with a supportive, questioning and diverse community. Crucially for me, the Sarum-Winchester PhD programme is one of the very few UK university programmes to offer a hybrid thesis in art and theology in which the creative process and resulting art output along with a written critical component are presented for examination.

This PhD research is a key part of my development as an artist engaged with theology and inter-religious dialogue.

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Stimulating and Challenging

What is Successful Ageing? led by James Woodward

I enjoyed the course immensely from beginning to end – the seamless interweaving of knowledge, ideas and research and the linking with belief and faith.

The content was stimulating, challenging, thought provoking and I was greatly appreciative of the contributions and questions from other participants, your considered and sensitive responses and integration with your presentations.

Thank you!

Netflix, Theology and Pastoral Practice

Peter Butchers on his MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture student experience

How do cultural tropes, like those found in Black Mirror, help bridge the gap between what academic theology espouses and what the everyday Christian believes? In his research as a student on the MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture, Peter Butchers explored platonic philosophy, digital theology and eschatology, and pastoral practice around death and dying.

Rewarding Sabbatical Stay

The Revd Greg Syler, is Rector of Ascension & St. George’s, Resurrection Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC USA, spent part of his ministry sabbatical at Sarum College in spring 2022.

His account of the experience begins: ‘I loved spending nearly three weeks of my ministry sabbatical at Sarum College earlier this year.

Not only did I rest, and rest well in the comfortable care of the Sarum College staff, I experienced very significant renewal and fresh insights.’

The Road Not Taken

Sarum Graduate Mike Truman

January 2022

Five years ago, I told my Warden of Readers that I would not be renewing my licence when it expired in 2019, as I thought my faith was becoming too unorthodox for a Church of England licensed lay minister. As someone who knew me well, she challenged me to actively explore what I did still believe. Thus started the journey that ended last August with the dissertation completing my MA in Theology Imagination and Culture (MATIC) at Sarum College.

Clergy Study Breaks

The opportunity for clergy to get away occasionally from their own context, to have an overnight stay in the beautiful setting of Sarum College and all that the Salisbury Cathedral Close offers is hugely valuable. All the clergy I have suggested who have spent 24hrs at Sarum College have benefit greatly from the experienced mentoring where they can talk, reflect, think, plan and pray.

The support and encouragement they receive is excellent and has a positive on their on going ministry. This is something the Diocese of Rochester encourages and supports financially in preparation for their clergy preparing for Extended Ministerial Development Leave (Sabbatical).

— Canon Christopher Dench, Diocese of Rochester Director of Formation and Ministry

Reading the Hebrew Bible