Customer Reviews

Hebrew for the Rest of Us: Using Hebrew Tools without Mastering Biblical Hebrew

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Lee Field's, "Hebrew for the Rest of Us" has been published as the Hebrew language equivalent to Bill Mounce's, "Greek for the Rest of Us"; however, the similarity of titles aside, the two works could hardly be more different! Whilst "HRU" is certainly well written I doubt that it would meet the needs of the intended audience, non-Hebrew trained Christian readers. It is simply too demanding. Positively, the text is replete with test questions, which is surely a 'good' thing. Negatively, it lacks any sort of answer key, which for a work of this sort must be a 'bad' thing.

As someone who tutors tertiary-level students in the biblical languages, I believe "HRU" would best serve the needs of those who are engaged in instructor-led learning at a theological college/seminary, or as a refresher text for those who had previously studied the language. Perhaps the ideal niche for the work would be a course along the lines of "introduction to Hebrew". But the interested 'layman' looking for a 'self-directed learner-friendly' text should probably look elsewhere (say, Kittel et al, "Biblical Hebrew: a Text and Workbook").

The editing in this book is the worst that I've ever seen in an academic book. The charts are confusing and generally not helpful. Finally, for some strange reason, the author insisted on abbreviated commonly used words. The word "pronoun", for instance, would repeatedly be abbreviated to "prn". Why? It made it difficult to read and to understand.

All in all, probably the worst academic book that I've ever used. Don't bother.

I do not own or use this book. I did go over it. It is actually a good little intro. But it is not quite a grammar and I do not believe it makes that claim. Yet it would suit most Christians, most ministers, and some Jews although it is definitely a Christian aimed resource. (He, at one point, takes a shot at Revelation's 666, though I'm not so sure he understands gematria well. Tarsus is 666, not Neron Kaesar. That's clearly Christian-centric.) But for most it would serve as a good tool to introduce the casual looker-upper and a bit more for Biblical Hebrew. But the key term is "casual reader." This approach serves the majority of people and most textbooks and courses are overkill. Funny thing is that most ministers will receive a store-bought ejication in Hebrew only in order to make them look like they know what they're talking about when totally misunderstanding the theology of the Tanakh and wrangling it about to promote non-biblical religion. So again, this is all most of them need. I once made a comment about a grammar /tool geared toward a Christian audience. A person made the comment that it was published by Zondervan, as if I was to accept that it would be Christian directed. Biblical Hebrew is just that, Biblical Hebrew, and should be. Anything else needs to be noted regardless of author or publisher. And I admit my prejudice against Christianity. If this little book is still usable in my opinion, then it must be half-way decent. Compare it to some others that include enough nonsense to sound like it mixes Hebrew and Sunday school, it is even more a positive approval.

I was very fortunate to have begun my study of Biblical Hebrew in a class taught by Dr Lee Fields. He is a wealth of knowledge surpassed only by his gifted ability to convey that same knowledge to people of diverse backgrounds. I thank you, Dr Fields, for teaching me HOW to learn a new language as well as for sparking a desire to continue to learn beyond the classroom. "Hebrew for the Rest of Us" is a valuable resource for anyone desiring to uncover the hidden treasures found ONLY in the amazing Hebrew language. I look forward to future works by Dr Fields!

This text will take you out of your comfort zone and into a realm of pure learning. You will feel like a third grader again learning basic language skill and wishing all the while you had a stronger vocxabulary to go along with your new "decoding" skills. It will encourage you to read to build facility in your new language.

I sent in a few reviews of this prior to publication. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to see any of the text; one of the problems was inaccuracy with the alphabet.

Has this been corrected?