You will discover in these texts our shared cultural heritage and recurring questions of human existence.

Within the Ancient Languages major you will have the opportunity to choose an emphasis in one of the three languages with a view to reading and working with texts of the Hebrew, classical, and Christian traditions. In addition to the area of emphasis there is opportunity to branch out into the other two languages. Periodically, courses in yet additional languages (e.g., Akkadian, Aramaic, Ugaritic) are also offered.

In addition to encouraging you to master the languages, we wish to stimulate you to grasp concepts and shape your own, to ask significant questions and to seek answers to them, to develop original ideas, to become intellectually self-motivated, and to give great attention to accuracy in the use and interpretation of your languages.

The place of Greek and Latin at Wheaton reflected the value of the classical languages in the life of an educated person of that time and was assumed to be an essential part of the liberal arts curriculum.