I agree that seminaries are often failing to educate students when it comes to the Bible. I think that there are a variety of reasons for this — too many to go into here. However, I did want to say that I disagree that Hebrew and Greek aren’t worth studying if one only studies them for a year.

One year of Hebrew or Greek can give a minister (or anyone, for that matter) the tools she needs to at least begin to think critically about translation issues. I have found that many pastors/seminarians have a very naive view of how complex the biblical languages are. A year of Hebrew or Greek can help to remove that ignorance. They won’t be qualified to exegete the text, at least not at any deep level (which is a problem at the seminary I attend. You have students taking exegesis courses who have only had a year of Greek or Hebrew, and thus they tend to make many a stupid mistakes…yet I still think this is better than someone who is ignorant of the languages), but they will be qualified to at the least look critically at the translations they use. I think there is value in that. I also think there is value in knowing Hebrew for their own personal study. Beyond that, they will at least be able to understand, though perhaps not completely grasp, critical commentaries.

Finally, and this comment is really too long already, how will someone ever know if they want to go on and have those three years of experience with Hebrew if they are never required to take the first year?