"Is It Important to Know Biblical Pronunciation?" Listening to some people, even pastors and their wives, the answer seems to be "No." I have heard more than one pastor jokingly pass over a portion of scripture because they didn't take the time to learn how to pronounce the names and all the words in it. That hasn't engendered my respect for that pastor.
God has had His Word put into writing. If people were reading what YOU had written, would you want them to know the CORRECT pronunciation of your words? You may say "Not necessarily." "My ways are higher than your ways", Isa 55:8, comes to mind. Why would God want us not only to know His Word (at least in our own language, if not the original language?), but also how to pronounce the words correctly. It might not be as necessary if we were not encouraged to share these words with others (Mt 28:19,20; 2Ti 2:2). I think God likes things to be correct, and mispronunciation is not being correct. In fact mispronunciation makes it more difficult to communicate (be rightly understood). If one mispronounces a menu item in certain restaurants, in certain countries, they are not going to be brought what they thought they ordered. Mispronounce certain words and one will say things that actually are an insult to the listener. Mispronunciation reveals either ignorance, laziness to learn, or offence (intended or otherwise). People may chose not to correct someone when they mispronounce their name, especially if they don't think they are going to be having any more contact with that person. They don't want to take the time and effort. But if they know that person is going to be addressing them again a number of times, or saying their name to others, they probably ARE going to correct them. The person being corrected should be GREATFUL that they are being corrected. We should not be content with passing on incorrectness to others. It used to be, and may still be, that in school, when children were learning how to read, write, and speak in public, they were taught to pronounce words correctly. What words are more important than the words of God (The Bible)? Should not people be taught how to pronounce His words correctly? How many speakers have not gained the respect of their listeners, because those listeners know that the speaker is ignorantly mispronouncing words. Some comedians have done this on purpose, but not to communicate, but to make people laugh. Christians should not want people distracted from what they are saying because people are laughing at their mispronunciations. A fault in many people is that they are lazy! They just want to listen or read. The are comfortable with that. They don't want to do the uncomfortable work of study and learning the meaning and application of what they are hearing and reading. When they read something they don't understand, they just keep on reading. They don't stop and take the time and do the work of research to find the answer to what they don't understand. Sure it is easier to skip over a list of unfamiliar, hard to pronounce names in the Bible and think "I don't need to read, correctly pronounce, or understand the reason these names are in the Bible. They probably are not even meant for me, but for the Jews of ancient history." If they are in the Bible, then 2Ti 3:16 refers to them when it says "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." One might say "But I don't understand why I have to learn this." That is the point. You don't understand, and need to learn to understand why you need to learn this, so that you can learn this, apply it into your life, and grow in this area as God does want you to grow here.
Imagine that you are in a meeting with a group of doctors, knowing that you will be asked to choose one of them to operate on you to save you from a life-threatening ailment. You look at the doctors and know some are much older, much more experienced, much more knowledgeable than others. You listen to them speak and see how this is confirmed. You listen and observe, and realize some are more caring than others. If they all would charge the same price, which one of them are you going to entrust with the permission to operate on you? In the spiritual realm, you are in a group of Christians. Some seem to be pronouncing the words of the Bible correctly, and some are obviously mangling it at times. Correct Bible pronunciation doesn't come "naturally", nor does the pronunciation of most languages. There are rules to be learned, time to be invested, and work and practice to be invested, just like learning a musical instrument. Sure, there are a lot of people that know how to play the guitar, but there are a lot, lot less that know how to play it really well. If God wants us to learn His Word, wouldn't you think He wants us to learn it well? People may ask "How long does it take to learn how to play a guitar?" A good answer might be "It depends on how well one wants to play it, and how much time they want to practice." That doesn't mean one shouldn't play the guitar for people until they know it well, but that they should keep improving. We may not know everything about God and the Bible, and we may be a slow learner, but as long as we have the ability to learn, we should keep learning, and not be satisfied with just what we have learned so far. (I apologize for anything that I wrote here that was not correct, including spelling and grammatical errors.)