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“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.

If you're interested in going deeper, learn more about Wheaton's undergraduate degree in Classical Languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Latin) and our MA in Biblical Exegesis

You can hear Exegetically Speaking on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If you have questions or comments, please contact us at exegetically.speaking@wheaton.edu. And keep listening. 

Jan 16, 2023

Rev. Dr. Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford is Emerita Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at Mercer University. She is the Old Testament editor for the Word Biblical Commentary Series, and she has published, Psalms, Books 4–5 (Volume 22) (Wisdom Commentary Series), among other things. Today’s topic: The KJV’s translation of the Hebrew phrase behind Ecclesiastes 1:2 was “vanity of vanities,” a wording that derived from Jerome’s much earlier Latin translation, and it’s a wording that has stuck. But what is the actual idea and how else can it be translated?