On 29 March 1836, JS and other members of the in , Ohio, finished their seven-week course of study under , the Hebraist who began teaching the class on 26 January. JS and the other students of the school—which had grown from a single class to four classes by early February—gathered each Monday through Saturday to receive oral instruction in Hebrew grammar; pupils also read aloud from and translated parts of the Hebrew Bible. On 30 March, Seixas issued a certificate to JS verifying that he had completed the Hebrew course to Seixas’s satisfaction and had been “indefatigable in acquiring the principles of the sacred language.”

By all accounts, JS was a diligent student of Hebrew. After returned to with “a quantity of Hebrew books” on 20 November 1835, JS commenced an earnest study of the language. Though he participated in the formal classes taught by , he also devoted considerable time to studying the language on his own. Between 23 November 1835 and 29 March 1836, JS’s journal mentions his studying of Hebrew—whether in class, with colleagues, or by himself—no fewer than seventy times. JS was apparently among a small group of students selected by Seixas for private instruction beyond regular class time; he may have also received individual instruction from the Hebrew teacher on occasion. According to JS’s journal, Seixas remarked that JS and the other students in the class were “the most forward of any class he ever taught, the same length of time.” The document featured here affirms JS’s progress in learning the Hebrew language. Besides JS, at least one other student, , was issued a similar certificate by Seixas attesting to his linguistic proficiency.