The Hebrew School - an excerpt from a journal

Journal 1835-6 - Unknown author - facts are correct

Educational program instituted by JS in Kirtland, Ohio, in January 1836 for the study of the Hebrew language. Class was usually held in the westernmost room in the third, or attic, story of the House of the Lord in Kirtland. Under the tutelage of Joshua Seixas, a Hebraist and language scholar, at least eighty students gained a basic knowledge of Hebrew in sessions that met regularly until the end of March of that year. Seixas apparently conducted an additional term of the Hebrew School in Kirtland in the summer of 1836.

Preparation of church officials for carrying out their responsibilities required ministerial training. This was accomplished in the Elders School, which was a revival of the earlier School of the Prophets. In early January 1836, an additional school was opened offering two months’ intensive study of biblical Hebrew under the tutelage of scholar Joshua Seixas. This instruction ran concurrently with the Elders School and involved many of the same students. JS himself participated as an enthusiastic student of Hebrew.

After resolving differences among church leaders, the officers were ready to receive the rituals associated with the temple and the anticipated endowment. This was a new development. The previous fall JS had told members of the Quorum of the Twelve that they were soon to attend the organization of a school of the prophets that would involve a solemn assembly and the ordinance of foot washing—patterned after Jesus’s ministration to his disciples after the Last Supper and mandated in the same revelation that first called for a temple to be built.23 This would have repeated the procedures followed at the organization of the initial School of the Prophets in 1833. Instead, JS organized the Elders School on 3 November 1835 without a solemn assembly, and the foot-washing ordinance was performed during a solemn assembly in the House of the Lord at the conclusion of a set of newly instituted ordinances.

 Before the Lord could “endow his servants,” recorded John Whitmer, “we must perform all the ordinances that are instituted in his house.”24 To this end, washing, anointing, and blessing the presidents of quorums began 21 and 22 January 1836. In the coming weeks, these rituals were administered in hierarchal order to each church officer in the House of the Lord. The ordinances were accompanied by exclamations of “hosanna” in unison. Visions and other spiritual manifestations were noted by numerous participants.   (Seixas, Joshua  - Jeshua – he who makes free).

Biography

4 June 1802–1874. Hebraist, textbook writer, teacher; probably born at New York City. Son of Gershom Mendez Seixas and Hannah Manuel. Married Henrietta Raphael of Richmond, Henrico Co., Virginia. Taught Hebrew at New York and Charlestown, Massachusetts. His work Manual Hebrew Grammar for the Use of Beginners was published at Andover, Essex Co., Massachusetts, 1833. Taught at Oberlin College, Ohio, 1835. Among his students was Lorenzo Snow, whose sister Eliza was a Latter-day Saint and lived in JS household at Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio. (JS possibly first heard of Seixas from this source or from Daniel Peixotto, whose wife, Rachel, was Seixas’s cousin.) Taught private course in Hebrew for six weeks at Western Reserve College at Hudson, Portage Co., Ohio, beginning in Dec. 1835 and ending 23 Jan. 1836. On 26 Jan. 1836, arrived at Kirtland, where he taught Hebrew from 26 Jan. to 29 Mar. 1836. Returned to New York by 1838.

Church members eventually settled in Kirtland, Ohio. There, Joseph Smith organized a school for adults. Initially, the classes were held in the temple and included classes in Hebrew and Greek. Both men and women participated in the school and studied together. Joseph enrolled in and attended the Hebrew class because he wanted to learn to read the Bible in its original language. One entry of his personal journal reads: “After a hard day’s work, went to my Hebrew class, and studied far into the night. Up in the morning and out at nine o’clock, attended the school and translated with the morning class. . . Attended my studies as usual and made some advancement.”

The Hebrew class was taught from January 26 to  March 29, 1836 by Joshua Seixas, a Jewish man who had converted to Christianity. The previous year, Seixas had taught at Oberlin College in Ohio, where Lorenzo Snow attended. Snow was not a member of the church at that time, although he would later join and would eventually become a prophet. He took classes from Seixas and wrote to his LDS (Mormon) sister about how much he enjoyed the teacher. His sister, Eliza R. Snow, was currently living in Joseph Smith’s home. She passed along the information to the prophet, who sent emissaries to hire Seixas. Seixas taught forty students during the course.

This course had the side impact of helping to convert Lorenzo Snow, who was becoming frustrated with his religious studies at Oberlin. His sister suggested he come to Kirtland and study Hebrew there under Seixas. While there, he was converted to the church.

Joseph studied Hebrew on his own until the classes began and later joined nine other students for additional coursework from Seixas. Although the class didn’t last for long, Joseph and one other student were able to read Hebrew well by the time the class ended. He often discussed language issues in his talks about the scriptures. Joseph became very excited by the study of languages, and made a list of a dozen languages he hoped to master in his lifetime.
When the church was forced out of its home and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, it again established schools, including a small university. Hebrew was also a part of this school.