Why was James Madison fluent in Hebrew?

[Ancestral Republican]

Hebrew was a dead language at that time, only used liturgically and culturally by Jews before being revived as a spoken language in the late 19th century by Zionists. I suppose it may have been useful if he was looking to translate religious texts.

[Kingpoleon]

A well learned Englishman in the eighteenth century knew Greek and Latin - an exceptionally well learned one knew Hebrew.

[Del Tachi]

To read religious texts in their original language