Customer Reviews

A Handbook to Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book by Kelley is extremely detailed without being overwhelming. Learning any language can be overwhelming, but if one takes this book lesson by lesson, they will do well. I find that this makes a great companion text to "Biblical Hebrew" by Kittel et al (see my review on this book for more information).
Kelley provides what Kittel does not, and vice versa. Kittel presents great lessons without getting into a mass of details that aren't yet necessary, and as a workbook, it moves you along confidently and quickly. But with learning anything, many like to know, and will definitely need to know fairly early on, not simply how something is done, but WHY, and what nuances are caused by the details. Kelley does just that by explaining point by point why things work the way they do in Hebrew. For example, this would include how vowel pointing changes and why. Kittel deals with vowel pointing, of course, and how it works grammatically, but leaves one without answers in many cases as to the systematic rules of how vowel pointing works. Also, Kittel's book does a nice job in presenting participles, but doesn't really give enough detail to help the beginner with the related nuances of participial grammar that even the beginner needs to know (e.g., what's the difference in translation between participles as adjective, as verbs, and as nouns?).
Kelley explains in detail what Kittel presents generally. He gives all the answers that Kittel does not. Kittel gives a more workable workbook than does Kelley. With Kittel, you feel like you're moving along faster and so it is more encouraging (I personally went through the first half of Kittel's book thoroughly in only 2 1/2 months, along with working on a number of chapters later in the book at the same time; I could never do that with Kelley's book).

Because of its great detail, it may have a somewhat discouraging effect by not allowing the student to move very quickly.
What I recommend for any truly serious student of Hebrew is to invest in both Kittel's and Kelley's books. Use Kittel's book as the main course, and use Kelley's as a main supplement (you will definitely need something to go with Kittel's book). After you've gotten about half way through Kittel's book, it would then be good to look at Kelley's book systematically and find the reasons for why Hebrew is the way it is. Ultimately, Kelley's book will have to become your main text if you really plan to learn Hebrew effectively. Kelley by far gives many more exercises to hone your skills. Also, I use Kelley's book sort of like an encyclopedia to turn to for more information as I study a chapter in Kittel's workbook.

I can't recommend this combination of books enough, for it truly gives many positive facets to studying Hebrew. For under $100, the serious student can be set for a long time with these two books. And one can still keep it under a hundred dollars by investing in what I believe to be the best student's vocabulary book out there for the price, "A Student's Vocabulary for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic," by Larry Mitchel, which covers all Hebrew words used 10 times or more in the OT, and all Aramaic words if you should choose to delve into that.
Kelley's book, considering its detail, is quite sufficiently systematic and also simple in its explanations. If you really want to learn, this book will give you what you need without being cumbersome.

This is a great beginning book. The lessons are well laid out and extremely straightforward. Kelley's starts you off with a core set of words that he continues to use throughout the book adding a few more words every lesson but still using the old words. This gives you the benefit of being able to become extremely familier with some important words, it also has the added benefit of allowing the student to focus in on the grammer instead of having to spend all the grammer lessons on trying to translate the meaning of the words you can concentrate on the conjugation and such. The book starts with nouns and adjectives and only after the student has a firm base does he move on to the infinitly more difficult verbs. Hey what did you expect it is Hebrew. One caution, although the book is full of excercises there are no answers. To get the answers you have to buy another book the handbook which accompanies this book. This is somewhat annoying and is the only reason this manual doesn't deserve 5 stars. The exercises are however extremely helpful in practicing and developing language skills.

I am currently finishing up my studies in Kelly. This work book is very solid, Kelly has taken a very in-depth and detailed approach to biblical hebrew. I am a Bible and Theology Major studying under one of Oxford's finest Hebrew profs. This work book can be used by anyone and is great for teaching yourself. Just make sure you buy the Handbook with the answers too...that is a life saver. If you are planning on teaching yourself "biblical" hebrew, then Kelly is the best route you can go, in my opinion of course.

Of all the Hebrew Grammar books on the market today this one is the most "user friendly." It puts the reader directly in the Bible and gives many examples. It is a life long companion to the biblical student. The binding, however, is awful and it will disintegrate by the second year of use.

This 450 page book is a solid introduction to Biblical Hebrew. The book is organized as a teaching help into graded lessons, but it is well organized into broad topical blocks so it is also useful as a reference. The large section of charts in the appendix has kept this book useful to me years after I began to learn Hebrew. Also, the excercises in the book are completely based on actual verses of the Hebrew Bible even starting from lesson one. There are no contrived, artificial sentences in it. As soon as you start, you are learning the bible. The book truly is the result of years and even generations of Hebrew instruction, and it is used in a very large number of seminaries and universities across the English-speaking world.

There is one word of caution to fundamentalist types and KJV enthusiasts who tend to be concerned that modern biblical scholarship is undermining biblical authority: Kelley is an NRSV devotee and bases a number of his translations on this version for the purpose of expressing politically correct, gender neutral language. I really must say that this has had such a small effect on the book that it has diminished nothing, however.

I am impressed with it. After working through this book a student will have the basics of classical Hebrew and will be able to read most of the prose narratives of the Torah. Kelley is conservative in his scholarship and gives a good treatment of the Hebrew verbal system, something that scholars don't fully understand at this point.

Page Kelley's grammar is the fruit of decades of experience teaching introductory biblical Hebrew. The format of the book is impeccable. The complexities of Hebrew grammar are made clear at every point. Each lesson is followed by extensive sets of exercises taken from the Hebrew Bible itself. The result is that beginning students are working with the Bible itself immediately and not artificially constructed phrases and sentences. This grammar establishes a clear program for learning Hebrew. Any student who follows that program faithfully and trusts the grammar to do its job will learn the basics of Hebrew grammar. I have used this grammar to teach my Hebrew classes and can not imagine teaching without it.

First, let me say that I've been studying Hebrew for around 4 years. So far, I've seen most of the books on the market, and this introductory grammar is the best I've seen.

With that having been said, a few points need to be made.

1. Do not purchase this book if you are an absolute beginner to Hebrew, and have no experience with the Hebrew langauge what so ever. This book is NOT a primer, and should not be considered such. I know some universities and colleges use books like this for first year Hebrew, however, that is in a classroom setting with fellow students and a teacher to help you out if you get stuck with something. Not to mention the teachers always have their "input" which helps explain some terms and grammar which might seem cumbersome.

For the absoulte beginner, I recommend reading some of Jeff Benners free lessons for introductory Hebrew on the internet at the Ancient Hebrew Research center. He even has sound clips to accompany the letters and vowels. Just do a web search, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

2. If you buy this book, be sure to buy companion handbook that goes with this grammar. It will supply you with all the answers to all the questions that are presented in this grammar.

This is an excellent grammar with lots of very clear explanations and Biblical quotes. I would use it as a reference tool only, not as a Hebrew manual since the content of each lesson can be quite overwhelming.

Page Kelley's "Biblical Hebrew" is loaded with lots of Hebrew scriptures to illustrate his grammatical points. If you like learning with Biblical examples, this is for you. There are exercises in each grammar chapter, plus separate Heb to Eng Vocabulary, verb tables, and glossary.

I'm giving this product 5 stars because reading 5-star reviews is what persuaded me to buy it. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE! If you don't read the fine print, you might think the reviews apply to THIS book. They don't! They apply to another book. This is just a companion volume with answer keys and such. So reading rave reviews of a book I don't own convinced me to buy the answer keys to its exercises! Now I've had to order the book again. (This time the right one.) Beware!