I’m always suspicious of anything that’s free, and even more so when it comes to Biblical Hebrew courses online.

As it turns out, this suspicion was both well-founded and unfounded. With the FreeHebrewOnline course, you get a fantastic range of free Hebrew lessons online, but they do come with a catch.

FreeHebrewOnline Course Content

The FreeHebrewOnline course is a series of around 100 YouTube videos, each lasting around 15 minutes. Most importantly, there is absolutely no sign-in required, you can either click through to the lessons from the FreeHebrewOnline website or search for them on YouTube. 

The earliest videos deal with basic vocabulary, while the later videos delve into more specific topics such as Biblical stories and interpretations, and have a more religious bent. This is standard for Biblical Hebrew courses, which obviously have to deal with the source material when it comes to learning the language.

I found the course content to be pretty thorough, and easy to follow, if not a bit simplistic at least at the beginning. While the course does the job of explaining words, vocabulary, and concepts, I did feel that there could be a lot more diversity in the learning style. But more on that later.

With Biblical Hebrew, there will always be a lot of discussion and learning around the Bible stories, however, I would have liked to have seen this being a little more balanced with discussions of biblical grammar, the roots of words, or otherwise. Still, I guess you get what you pay for, and free is free.

FreeHebrewOnline Teaching Methodology

Here’s where you really get what you pay for. Like with other paid online Biblical Hebrew courses, I feel like I can’t complain about the lack of diversity in the learning methodology.

The teaching methodology might be effective for most learners, and the emphasis is on picking up Hebrew like a child would pick up a language. Focusing on concurrently seeing an image and hearing a language creates a link between language and vision, which is a pretty effective way of teaching. But, and it’s a big “but”, if you’re more of a traditional learner and are used to structured lessons with clear objectives, milestones, and a sense of progression, or just love a good, standard grammar lesson, this might not be the most effective teaching methodology for you. I feel like this approach did work for me, but it was also grating at times.

The YouTube videos are well produced and obviously have had a lot invested into their making. However, I really felt a lack of diversity in the learning methodology, such as having interactive quizzes, questions, or some other type of learning style included. On the FreeHebrewOnline website, the site provides links to external resources, such as grammar lessons, interactive quizzes and flashcards (which I found somewhat lacking), printable worksheets, and even a range of apps for Android. However, I still found it not to be quite what I was looking for in order to make the course more interactive and engaging. 

FreeHebrewOnline Instructor Expertise

Here’s the thing. The hosts of FreeHebrewOnline, Beth and Andrew, seem like lovely people. They have a church and proselytizing background, which is why they’ve made this video series to teach Biblical Hebrew.

Whatever you feel about that, one important thing stands out for me: the fact that neither Beth or Andrew are native Hebrew speakers. Although this is less important than if Beth and Andrew were teaching Modern Hebrew, I still feel that’s a sticking point. Although Biblical Hebrew is purely written, rather than spoken, there were several mispronunciations across the lessons that I watched, which if you wanted to continue your Hebrew learning journey by learning how to speak Modern Hebrew, would definitely set you back a bit in your learning.

Otherwise, Beth and Andrew seem highly knowledgeable, and their love of Biblical Hebrew comes from a deep love of the church and wanting to share their knowledge with the world.

FreeHebrewOnline Student Interaction

Unlike Modern Hebrew, where student interaction is a key aspect of the Hebrew learning journey, Biblical Hebrew is far less interactive. As such, FreeHebrewOnline doesn’t have any opportunities for student interaction that I could see, other than the ability to comment below the YouTube video lessons.

Having said that, the comments below each lesson were pretty lively. Although there was no interactive student discussion, it was really nice to see that most of the learners taking the free course were very engaged, excited to learn, and found the course highly effective.

FreeHebrewOnline Course Length and Pace

I really enjoyed the pacing in the FreeHebrewOnline biblical Hebrew course. Not only is the course self-led, but because of the YouTube lessons, you’re also free to skip ahead to any lesson where you feel like you want to focus your learning.

The lessons at 15 minutes long each are long enough that you can get lost in your learning, and still feel you’ve achieved something, yet also easily fit them in for a quick lesson if you find yourself with some time on your hands between your other activities. I definitely felt this was a huge plus for the FreeHebrewOnline course.

What I would say would be more effective, would be if FreeHebrewOnline suggested a clear path or timeline for Hebrew learners, to allow learners to feel more focused and as if their learning were heading towards something concrete (such as fluency, being able to hold a basic conversation, etc).

FreeHebrewOnline Accessibility

FreeHebrewOnline is accessible in a few different ways. Not only is it available on YouTube, as I mentioned above, which means that it’s accessible anywhere that you have access to YouTube, but it’s also free, making it easier for every type of learner to access, either as a serious learner or just to dip their toes in.

I really like this inclusive approach, and that’s also regarding the language. Biblical Hebrew doesn’t necessarily need a strong grip of English to be able to learn it, but I definitely felt that every type of learner, regardless of their native language, will be able to easily access and understand the course, as such little English is used. In fact, I don’t recall a time that I heard either Beth or Andrew speaking English during the whole course.

Beth and Andrew also recommend a series of Android apps that can be downloaded as a complement to your Biblical Hebrew studies with their course, although these are not Android apps designed by FreeHebrew online.

FreeHebrewOnline Cost

The FreeHebrewOnline Biblical Hebrew course is entirely free, and doesn’t even require sign-in in order to access it. This is because the course creators, Beth and Andrew, have a deep love of Biblical Hebrew, and (coming from a church background) believe that Biblical Hebrew should be accessible for all to learn, which is why they also refuse to monetize their YouTube videos with ads. That’s right, every YouTube video here is ad-free, thanks to Beth and Andrew’s personal beliefs. I can definitely get on board with that, and in all seriousness, not being constantly interrupted by ads when I was in the middle of a language lesson, really did help the learning process.

The Bottom Line on FreeHebrewOnline 

 As you may know, there is no such thing as a free lunch, but I was surprised at how much value I got from the FreeHebrewOnline Biblical Hebrew course.

Although the learning style might not be for everyone, it was a pretty engaging, pretty effective way to learn biblical Hebrew, and I would definitely dip back in if I needed a refresher. However, this is certainly not the ideal way to learn every type of learning, and those looking for something more serious and more intensive should probably look elsewhere.