Customer Reviews

Williams Hebrew Syntax (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Beckman thoroughly revised and expanded Williams' original work without losing it's genius. He includes a concise and informative explanation for each grammatical category and gives a literal interlinear and idiomatic translation for every example. Beckman has helped all future Hebrew students with his extensive footnotes. For every category, he gives a footnote with the section number of the same category in the five major reference grammars--A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Gesenius, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, and Joüon. Thus, he made his grammar into an index of all grammars.

Despite these advances, I have one minor criticism. The authors do no include a separate section on hinneh, "behold." This particle plays a key role in many constructions as evidenced in the grammar. However, the student must flip though the whole book to find these uses when they should be together. Perhaps the authors left this out to save space but they could at least include hinneh in the Hebrew word or subject indexes. I hope a future edition could correct this very minor oversight.

I use this grammar every time I read Hebrew. When I arrive at a construction I need help with, I reach for William's Hebrew Syntax first. Usually, I am satisfied with his description but if I need more I use his footnotes to quickly find the appropriate section in an advanced grammar. Beckman has made a grammar that is ideal for quick reading while also acting as gateway to more advanced study. I recommend all students buy Williams Hebrew Syntax and either Bruce K. Waltke and M. O'Connor An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax or Paul Jouon and T. Muraoka A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. With this combination, you can quickly look up constructions without flipping though thousands of pages and still have access to advanced information when you need it.

I used this revised Syntax last Fall in its pre-publication form. Beckman's expansion of Williams' Outline makes it significantly easier for students to correctly grasp key grammatical categories. The low price of this valuable work means that every student of Biblical Hebrew will want to own a copy.

For teachers, one great advantage of this volume is that it is possible to cover the entire text in one semester (something that is nearly impossible to do with Waltke or Jouon). If you are teaching Intermediate Hebrew, you owe it to yourself and your students to give the third edition of Williams' Syntax a close look.

This is more than I expected to get for my money. Beckman has done Ronald J. Williams' "Outline of Hebrew Syntax" a great service by expanding the material by Williams, offering copious references to other grammars of biblical Hebrew, explaining grammatical jargon of linguists, and changing the print from that of a typewriter to a beautiful, readable Hebrew font. I purchased "A Guide to Biblcal Hebrew Syntax," and "Davidson's Hebrew Grammar: Syntax" by Gibson, but I found Beckman's update of Williams' book to surpass the former. The book is definitely worth the cost of the book. It will serve as a great aid along with the student's Hebrew Bible, and introductory Hebrew Grammar, as the student undertakes his or her journey to read God's word for all its worth.

I used the 2nd edition of William's Syntax for years, and Mr. Beckman has done a great service by keeping what what good about the 2nd edition while updating the layout and filling out explanations & examples to make it easier to read and use. I usually read my Hebrew Bible using Zondervan's Reader's Hebrew Bible, and this syntax is the only other aid I usually need when reading. If you are learning to read the Hebrew Bible or working to improve your understanding, get this book.

I wish I had more time to write reviews like this; I only want to give this five stars, and to say that this is a thorough, helpful, and very well-done revision of Williams' original Hebrew Syntax. Essentially, the older versions are now obsolete, and Beckman's footnotes, additional examples, and explanations are very clear and helpful. As it is often difficult to find the information one wants in Gesenius, Joüon/Muraoka, etc., the fact that every example and syntactical/grammatical point is cross-referenced with these works is a godsend.

For the basic Hebrew student who would like to be able to do basic studies of hebrew like use of a lexicon, this book is a must have, as it explains things about the language that you one would never know unless they were fluent in the language or had done a lot of translation.

Perfect for one who has taken at least semester of Hebrew. Easy to understand and concise to where you are not overwhelmed with concepts.

Basically this book is a compendium of the the syntactical options available to the exegete. It provides a thorough listing of optiosn along with relevant passages that highlight his points. I think this is a worthwhile purchase. As the title reflects this would be a good intermediate grammar/syntax for the Hebrew student.

One downside to this syntax is that there is very little in offering the student on how to use the different options. While I have said that this book is for those who are intermediate or advanced, and by definition shoudl alreayd know how to use it, it would be helpful for an explaination of his rationale for making some of the distinctions that he does. All in all a good reference book that will serve it purpose!

While there are serval textbooks that treats Biblical Hebrew syntax issues, I think William 's Hebrew syntax by far is the most comprehensive and readable grammar book on the market. It treats each category of Biblical hebrew syntax-noun, verb, prepostion, and sentence structures- down to minutest detail. But in my opion, William have had least treatment of wav-consective topic where he just went throught the basics (probably due to the the controveral nature, he refrain to draw any conclusive statement regarding wav-connsective which leave the final judegment to the readers ) as oppose to the Intermediate Biblical Hebrew by Andrew E. Steinmann that give fuller treatment helping the readers to grasp one of the most diffcult yet controversal issue among the acdemic circle of the day. Well, that being said it , however, it does not downplay the overall content quality of the william's Biblical Hebrew Syntax.

Being self-taught at Hebrew, I thought that Williams Hebrew Syntax would increase my ability to navigate through Hebrew syntax substantially. I had worked through most of Kelley's Grammar and have read through almost two intermediate readers and found that Williams not only did not give me more than I could get in the BDB and Jouon-Muraoka, it didn't even briefly address some of the important questions I had. I fully understand that an affordable volume like this isn't meant to be comprehensive like Waltke-O'Connor, but it should at least touch on important issues. An example of this is with the particle na'. I have the Kindle version, so it may be in the paperback version, but I found no reference to this particle of entreaty in either the contents or the index of the Kindle version! na' is not listed under particles and it does not appear in the section on volitional clauses. So, as with most of my questions on syntax, I had to go to Jouon-Muraoka's Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (since I do not own Waltke-O'Connor). My suggestion is that if you want to understand Hebrew syntax, find another more comprehensive volume.