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Matthew Reading Practice Course Contents

Overview

NOTE: These Courses are only fully available to Subscribers. If you have not yet Subscribed, some of the lesson links will not be available. To take full advantage of these Courses, you therefore need to Subscribe.

Welcome to this Matthew Reading Practice Course. If your primary interest is Biblical Aramaic, completing this Course is an essential next step after completing the Hebrew/Aramaic Alphabet Course (or the Estrangela, Serta or Swadaya Courses), because it will take you from the stage where you can read words individually, to the stage where you can read verses and passages reasonably confidently.

Once you know the Hebrew/Aramaic Alphabet, it takes some time before you can read competently, at a normal speed. This is the aim of this Course. As you read the text of the first few chapters of Matthew in Aramaic over and over again many times, your reading speed will naturally improve, and as the days go by you will feel more confident in your ability to read Aramaic words.

Do not be tempted to skip this Course. It may take time, but by the end of this Course you will be able to read confidently, and every Course you do after that will become much easier. Besides, reading through the Aramaic text of Matthew is fun!

Stage 1 - Read the Chapters Slowly

Before you can confidently move on to look at actual Bible passages or learn vocabulary, you need to get to the stage where you can read Biblical Aramaic words and verses confidently. Even if you don't fully understand what you are reading at this stage, you need to be able to read confidently, because that opens the door to everything else.

  • Below we have provided some downloads where the whole of Matthew chapters 1, 2 and 3 are being read at normal speed, and at an artificially slow speed. Follow these along in your Aramaic New Testament, and get to the stage where you can read these chapters and follow along with the reading.
Title Type Author Date Size Tags
Matthew1 .mp3 August 30, 2016 2.78 MB Download
Matthew1-slow .mp3 August 30, 2016 4.66 MB Download
Matthew2 .mp3 August 30, 2016 3.14 MB Download
Matthew2-slow .mp3 August 30, 2016 6.34 MB Download
Matthew3 .mp3 August 30, 2016 2.16 MB Download
Matthew3-slow .mp3 August 30, 2016 4.36 MB Download

 

  • Spend at least a week or two, perhaps 10-15 minutes several times per day, listening to these Matthew recordings, while you also read the Aramaic text. The goal here is simply to be able to read the text, slowly at first, until you can eventually read it at approximately normal speed, even if you do not understand it (at this stage!).

NOTE: If you do not already have an Aramaic New Testament or a way to follow along, you can download a free copy of Matthew chapters 1 to 3 below. Versions have been provided in all four scripts - Ashuri, Estrangela, Serta and Swadaya - so that you can repeat this Course for any, or all, of the scripts that you are interested in.

Title Type Author Date Size Tags
Matthew1to3 Ashuri PDF .pdf August 30, 2016 52.75 KB Download
Matthew1to3 Estrangela PDF .pdf August 30, 2016 95.83 KB Download
Matthew1to3 Serta PDF .pdf August 30, 2016 85.39 KB Download
Matthew1to3 Swadaya PDF .pdf August 30, 2016 83.79 KB Download

 

  • For Stage 1, download the above PDFs of the first few chapters of Matthew in Aramaic, and follow along in the Aramaic text as you listen to the above chapters read slowly. You can stop and start the audio any time you need to, in order to follow along. At first this may be slow, but that's why you need this stage! You will get faster, I promise!

Stage 2 - Read At Normal Speed

For Stage 2, once you can follow along slowly, try to follow along at normal reading speed. As well as having the entire chapters of Matthew narrated in the download links above, you can also use the download links below, which contain Matthew chapter 1 broken down into individual verses (if you find that easier).

Practice with each verse individually, one at a time, until you feel more confident, and no longer struggle to follow along with the readings.

This will be a struggle at first, but I promise you, it will be worth it! This is the step that almost everyone leaves out when they first try to learn Aramaic, and it is the reason why hardly anyone gets past the Alphabet stage. It is because you are trying to run (understand whole passage plus grammar) before you can walk (read words confidently)!

Title Type Author Date Size Tags
Mat1v1 .mp3 August 30, 2016 83.54 KB Download
Mat1v2 .mp3 August 30, 2016 104.99 KB Download
Mat1v3 .mp3 August 30, 2016 117.43 KB Download
Mat1v4 .mp3 August 30, 2016 102.64 KB Download
Mat1v5 .mp3 August 30, 2016 115.14 KB Download
Mat1v6 .mp3 August 30, 2016 97.86 KB Download
Mat1v7 .mp3 August 30, 2016 100.95 KB Download
Mat1v8 .mp3 August 30, 2016 99.08 KB Download
Mat1v9 .mp3 August 30, 2016 98.61 KB Download
Mat1v10 .mp3 August 30, 2016 98.51 KB Download
Mat1v11 .mp3 August 30, 2016 61.80 KB Download
Mat1v12 .mp3 August 30, 2016 116.08 KB Download
Mat1v13 .mp3 August 30, 2016 104.83 KB Download
Mat1v14 .mp3 August 30, 2016 100.02 KB Download
Mat1v15 .mp3 August 30, 2016 98.03 KB Download
Mat1v16 .mp3 August 30, 2016 98.42 KB Download
Mat1v17 .mp3 August 30, 2016 239.89 KB Download
Mat1v18 .mp3 August 30, 2016 173.07 KB Download
Mat1v19 .mp3 August 30, 2016 131.13 KB Download
Mat1v20 .mp3 August 30, 2016 229.13 KB Download
Mat1v21 .mp3 August 30, 2016 105.08 KB Download
Mat1v22 .mp3 August 30, 2016 90.62 KB Download
Mat1v23 .mp3 August 30, 2016 105.03 KB Download
Mat1v24 .mp3 August 30, 2016 114.17 KB Download
Mat1v25 .mp3 August 30, 2016 94.79 KB Download

Stage 3 - Course Completion

You complete this Course when you can read through the first few chapters of Matthew yourself (even if still somewhat slowly), and when you can follow along the narration of these chapters while you read the Aramaic text. Once you can do that, you have truly made spectacular progress, and you will be well on your way to being able to complete other Courses on this website!

For extra credits, write out Matthew chapter 1 in your own handwriting, and send it to Ewan.