Connecting translators to the richness of the land

Baruch B. Kvasnica, Founder, President Jerusalem Seminary. Photo: Jerusalem Seminary

An interview with Baruch Kvasnica, President of Jerusalem Seminary

Jerusalem Seminary (JS) offers training in biblical Hebrew as well as biblical and theological courses, including academic study tours. In 2026, JS will launch a two-year online MA in Biblical Studies that includes two short residencies in Jerusalem. Courses are both academic and devotional in nature and focus on the land of the Bible and all its contextual richness.

Biblical Hebrew is taught by modern Hebrew speakers trained to teach Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language (BHLL) in a communicative biblical Hebrew approach. JS also offers month-long Hebrew intensives through its School of Hebrew: Hebrew for the Nations courses offered in Israel, online and in other countries. JS has trained over 70 Israelis in the living language approach of teaching biblical Hebrew, and certified about a dozen for the School of Hebrew: Hebrew for the Nations intensives (H4N).

Baruch B. Kvasnica is Founder and President, Jerusalem Seminary.

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Entrance to Jerusalem Seminary. Photo: Jerusalem Seminary 

How did Jerusalem Seminary get started?

Jerusalem Seminary was born out of a palpable need to connect the richness of the land and language of the Bible—that I and so many have experienced—with worldwide ministry training opportunities for pastors and Bible Translators. After graduating from SIL’s Ukarumpa high school in Papua New Guinea, I felt a call to ordained ministry overseas, and because of my Jewish heritage I went to Israel in the summer of 1994. Those nine weeks changed my life. My summer base was with Halvor and Mirja Ronning, founders of the Jerusalem Center for Bible Translators (JCBT), where I took an amazing class on Early Christianity with Petra Heldt at Hebrew University and participated in a seminar with Kenneth Bailey. This summer caused me to defer seminary training in the USA and instead stay in Israel to take a deep dive into the language and culture of the Bible.

I deeply desired to be ordained in the late 1990s, but there was no seminary in Israel that offered an M.Div. in English. I realized that in order for such an institution to be established there needed to be a larger community that believed in this vision. In 2005, the Jerusalem Biblical Studies Society was created to promote this vision through pastoral and study tours in Israel and Jordan as well as Greece, Turkey and Rome. That same year I began working with Bible translators through JCBT where so many mother-tongue Bible translators came to receive training in biblical Hebrew and historical geography. Many of them were also pastors.

So it wasn’t just Hebrew training but a broader desire for theological training that shaped this vision. Did Vision 2025 have a role in nudging this forward?

More and more people began to hear of the vision of having not only Biblical but also pastoral training here in the Land of the Bible. God’s provision of seed money allowed for the establishment of JS in January 2018.  Since then we have been slowly and steadily growing. We have served over 450 students online and 200 students in person: Bible translators, pastors and lay people who desire to know biblical Hebrew and the Jewish context of the Scriptures and Jesus.

While Vision 2025 may have had some tacit influence upon the establishment of JS, the long-term goal of worldwide ministry training rooted in and from the Land of the Bible, coupled with a desire for Hebrew-based translation of the Older Testament, has greatly contributed to shaping the vision of JS.

JS H4N instructors Yuval and Tali with their Hebrew students in Nigeria, 2024. Photo: Jerusalem Seminary

What is unique about how biblical Hebrew is taught at JS?

In the early 2000s, I studied under the two pioneers of the living biblical language approach, Randall Buth and Christoph Rico. I have worked to fuse the best of both methodological approaches. This has been incorporated in five ways:

1) Using Second Language Acquisition methodology to teach Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language (BHLL)

2) Providing two or even three teachers in every biblical Hebrew class to help the students as well as develop new teachers;

3) A curriculum based on word frequency (with more common words taught first) rather than based on vocabulary of a certain book of the Bible;

4) Courses taught almost exclusively in Biblical Hebrew (and not modern Hebrew) to keep the students immersed in the language they are learning; and

5) For the School of Hebrew: Hebrew for the Nations intensives (H4N), providing certified teachers that are as fluent as possible in speaking biblical Hebrew.

Also, we have had a variety of biblical Hebrew courses all using the communicative approach: three Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language (BHLL) levels thus far and year-long courses for consultants. More recently we’ve added online reading groups, as well as workshops for local Israeli congregations to teach biblical Hebrew, as there is a gap between modern and biblical Hebrew.

How have your strategies and vision changed — and especially post-COVID?

While we have always desired to have students here in the Land of the Bible, Jerusalem Seminary began just prior to COVID and we quickly embraced online teaching. We created optimum learning experiences by having multiple teachers per class in language learning which allows for breakout sessions, more interactions and a healthier learning experience. These unique and optimal online teaching methods, as well as teaching from Israel itself, have allowed us to provide an effective global impact with students from over 30 countries. Bringing students from the nations to Jerusalem and sending ”Instruction” (Torah) and teachers out from Zion combines the visions of Micah 4:2 and Acts 1:8—from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, Amen!

For Alliance organisation leaders all over the world who will read this, what would you most like them to know about Jerusalem Seminary?

We hope and desire that anyone going into ministry, especially those involved in Bible translation and pastoring, would have the irresistible opportunity to study and experience the land and language of the Bible in(or from) Jerusalem with Jerusalem Seminary.

Email interview: Gwen Davies, Wycliffe Global Alliance

Alliance organisations are welcome to download and use photos from these articles.

For more information email: info@jerusalemseminary.org