A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax [Paperback]

Bill T. Arnold (Author), John H. Choi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521533481 | ISBN-13: 978-0521533485 | Publication Date: November 24, 2003 | Edition: Bilingual

At the heart of biblical interpretation is the need to read the Bible's "syntax" (the way words, clauses, and sentences relate to each other). The growing demands on theological education have made it difficult for students of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) to master the intermediate-level skills required to interpret the syntax of the Bible's original language. A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax defines the fundamental syntactical features of the Hebrew Bible, and illustrates each feature with at least one example, extracted from the Bible itself and accompanied with English translation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Arnold and Choi have given to all who love the Hebrew Scriptures a clear, concise, correct and carefully prepared guide to Biblical Hebrew syntax, helping its students to interpret scripture accurately." Bruce K. Waltke, author of An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

"This is a highly useful book. It is brief and concise, yet is long enough to provide helpful and detailed descriptions (along with copious examples) that condense and distill the best of recent developments in Hebrew grammar and syntax... Students and instructors of Biblical Hebrew will want and need this volume on their shelves." Brent A. Strawn, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

"What a joy to read!...The concept of having something to put into students' hands after a year of grammatical study that attempts to lead them further into making sense of the Hebrew text is a wonderful and commendable goal....This is a long-overdue book." Roy L. Heller, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

Book Description

At the heart of biblical interpretation is the need to read the Bible's "syntax" (the way words, clauses, and sentences relate to each other). The growing demands on theological education have made it difficult for students of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) to master the intermediate-level skills required to interpret the syntax of the Bible's original language. A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax defines the fundamental syntactical features of the Hebrew Bible, and illustrates each feature with at least one example, extracted from the Bible itself and accompanied with English translation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Bilingual edition (November 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521533481
• ISBN-13: 978-0521533485
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Hebrew > Instruction

More About the Author

Bill T. Arnold (Ph.D., Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion) is the Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary. Among his publications are Genesis: The New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge, 2009), Who Were the Babylonians? (Atlanta, 2004), A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (with John H. Choi; Cambridge, 2003), 1 and 2 Samuel: NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich., 2003), and Encountering the Old Testament (with Bryan E. Beyer; Grand Rapids, Mich.: 1999 [second edition, 2008]). He has also edited The Face of Old Testament Studies (with David W. Baker; Grand Rapids, 1999 [paperback, 2005), and the Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books (with H. G. M. Williamson; Downers Grove, Ill.: 2005).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best handbook for beginner BH syntax, June 11, 2004

By 

djdjdjdjdjdj9 "djdjdjdjdjdj9" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Paperback)

One can easily memorize word lists but know very little of how Biblical Hebrew words come together to create meaning. This is a great little handbook for beginner Hebrew syntax and usage. There are other more robust guides for Hebrew syntax (Lambdin, Gesenius, Waltke & O'Connor, etc.), but this book excels in its structural presentation and compact size. Each syntactical definition is accompanied by a simple example from the actual text of the OT to illuminate the principle that is taught. It is a must for taking the next step beyond vocabulary memorization.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yet another mixed bag of Biblical Grammar: a bit too taxonomic, December 10, 2006

By 

N. Caine (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Paperback)

It's stunning that after years of Biblical authorship, we still don't have a good guide to Biblical grammar for beginning or intermediate level students. Biblical grammar is a tricky thing: it is the product of modern scholarship's attempt to reconstruct a Biblical grammar. Arnold and Choi's contribution is helpful in many ways: it allows someone with only basic grammatical knowledge to penetrate and learn Biblical grammar, someone who would otherwise be lost by the concision of Moshe Greenberg or overwhelmed by Gesenius. It will explain to you that there are no tenses in Hebrew, only "aspects" (perfect and imperfect), and it will run down long taxonomical lists of grammatical "uses", such as pages and pages and pages of the various "meanings" of the lamed. (For what it's worth, there is increasing scholarship today that Biblical Hebrew in fact is a tensed language, not an aspected language, though, not surprisingly, Arnold and Choi do not point out that there is an opposing opinion to theirs.)

The problem, and it is a major one, is that Arnold and Choi make no effort to present to the reader which meanings and uses are relatively established and which are speculative. When I went over many of the uses with a professor of Biblical grammar, I learned that they establish entire categories for uses that occur once in the whole Bible. This is their downfall: if they can make another use or "case," then they will (the astronomical number of special uses of the construct form is absurd), and then they'll tell us that we have to put certain examples in those categories. We are told, for example, that the causative hifil of "see" is the permissive hifil, as in "God let him see" when in fact there is no reason not to translate it "God showed him."

In a pedagogical sense, this has a negative effect on the reader, since we are led to believe that there are dozens and dozens of uses and cases we must memorize, when in fact they could have saved everyone a lot of trouble by simple estimating frequency next to each of their entries, so a student could know what to concentrate on. Furthermore, their hyper-scholarly approach requires that the reader know lots of grammatical terms, which few students today know.

Is it helpful at all? Yes, particularly with verb forms. Most students, even those with significant modern Hebrew under their belts, do not understand the verb form uses in the Bible, such as that Nifal is rarely a passive, and is most often a reflexive and sometimes a reciprocal. That's very important when translating the Bible. Similarly, if you don't understand what it means that Pi'el is used causally for statives, then you can't understand Biblical Hebrew, and this book will explain to you what that means (though you will have to look up "stative" in a dictionary), or what a "putative pi'el" is, which is vital. Read those sections of their book five or six times and you'll eventually "get it."

Still, I personally prefer Moshe Greenberg's Introduction to Hebrew, though that's very short and very dense and assumes you have a basic grounding in Hebrew and grammatical terms.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Simple and Comprehensive Guide, November 13, 2006

By 

David Zook (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Paperback)

I have used this book extensively as I have exegeted the Hebrew text and it is fantastic. This guide is snap to use for about 95% of the questions I have regarding the text. The other 5% I use Walkte and O'Connor.