Frequently Asked Questions
We spend most of our time serving our members, rather than focusing on marketing. But we do have a free Getting Started course which you can get started with here.
We open the Greek and Hebrew Mastery Memberships periodically throughout the year, generally when we start a new beginners cohort. To find out when we next open up one of our memberships, join our mailing list!
Yes! Our entire system is designed for self-study first. But we provide cohorts and other opportunities to meet with other members and learn together. In short, you can use the membership however it best suits you.
Once you join the membership, the courses relevant to you will be immediately available for self study. We’ll also let you know when the next cohorts are starting, so that if you want to be part of a group and follow a schedule, you can.
Not only can you self-study or work with a cohort, you can even switch between self-study and cohorts and switch cohorts whenever you want – you don’t even need to tell us!
Yes, You can download the Biblical Mastery Academy app free and take our Getting Started course free. Download it on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Growth Membership
The Growth Membership is designed for those who simply want to grow in Christ likeness and who are not committed to learning the languages.
Greek Mastery Membership
We assume nothing! Regardless of whether you’ve never learned the alphabet or you’ve been studying Greek for a couple of years, we have courses and lessons to take you all the way to mastery of the Greek New Testament.
Hebrew Mastery Membership
This is a new membership we launched in 2022 with our Beginning Hebrew course. We’re adding new courses and cohorts to develop you to mastery of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Premium Languages Membership
The Premium Languages Membership provides everything in the Greek and Hebrew Mastery Memberships combined, and adds a number of additional features such as our Greek Grammar Intensive Workshops and Milestone Cohort Calls.
That means you can be a complete newbie and learn both Greek and Hebrew at the same time (which we generally do not recommend).
The Premium Languages Membership is designed to be more affordable than paying individually for the Greek and Hebrew Mastery Memberships and includes our certification as part of the price.
We are all for the use of Greek and Hebrew grammars for studying and learning the languages. We’ve even got our own Grammar!
However, learning alone is challenging. When you learn on your own, there is no accountability, no schedule, and, most importantly, no proven system to take you from beginner to mastery. You’re left to figure it all out by yourself. Some can do this, but most struggle.
We have had hundreds of members pass through our courses and come out the other side with greater knowledge of the language than when they were self studying using a grammar. Even those who studied the languages in the past find the approach in the memberships takes them well beyond the skill they attained under their previous learning environment (including seminary)!
We use an optimized form of the grammar translate approach with emphasis on reading naturally for fluency. The material is directly from the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Old Testament so that you will be reading phrases and passages directly from scripture right from the start. The live classes provide plenty of opportunity for discussion and the community members and leaders are available for questions in between classes.
Each lesson of our courses or milestones contains:
- A video presentation teaching the material or covering key grammatical concepts in the reading
- A vocabulary deck of digital flashcards
- A written lesson summary
- Homework sheets in PDF or MS Word
Our beginning Greek course is now focused around our own beginning Greek program called Beginning Greek in Small Steps which is designed for people who are not learning Greek in seminary or college. This makes the process of learning Greek much easier.
Our beginning Hebrew course is keyed to chapters in a grammar.
We also have regular live calls to give members additional support as they work through courses.
No, we do not charge any additional costs, nor do we charge per course. You can take our courses as many times as you like as a member.
There are a few additional costs. For example, we recommend a vocabulary app and a parsing app to help you learn, and in Hebrew, you’ll need to purchase a copy of the grammar we use.
These are inexpensive one-off costs and everything else is included in your monthly membership fee.
We recommend and use an app called Flashcards Deluxe for vocabulary flashcards, available on the Google Play or Apple App store.
Once you have the app set up with your phone, tablet or even desktop for Apple users, you can download the files of flashcards from the member site. We give you one new file per lesson, eventually adding 30 words a week to your vocabulary knowledge. This helps you quickly gain fluency in reading!
Founder and CEO, Dr. Darryl Burling, studied Greek in seminary. While he learned to exegete the text, the focus was not on how to read Greek. Seminaries and other courses typically focus on exegesis, not reading. Biblical Mastery Academy is one of the only biblical language learning providers with a goal to get members to reading fluency, while also growing a deep understanding of grammar and syntax. We’ll also teach you to exegete the text from a languages-first approach rather than in your English Bible!
Also, in our memberships, there is no pressure, no deadlines, no exams, and you don’t pay again if you want to repeat a course!
For our Greek Mastery Membership, additional resources include:
Apps
Flashcards Deluxe (Google Play or Apple App Store)
ParseGreek by Danny Zacharias (Google Play or Apple App Store)
Books
Beginning Greek: We now use our own beginning Greek grammar, Beginning Greek in Small Steps which we provide for you inside the course.
For Reading Greek and Greek Syntax: Intermediate Greek Grammar by Mathewson and Emig (Amazon or Logos)
For Interpretation of Ephesians: Tyndale House Greek New Testament (Amazon or Logos), and Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Amazon or Logos)
Apps
Flashcards Deluxe (Google Play or Apple App Store)
Books
For Beginning Hebrew: You’ll need Kutz and Josberger’s Learn Biblical Hebrew (Logos). You’ll need both the grammar (Amazon) and workbook (Amazon). Logos bundles both together here.