Let’s assume at this point that you’re someone who took a year of Hebrew in school, but it was a long time ago. Or, you have worked through a grammar on your own. You’ve learned some basics, but you’re not quite ready to dive into Isaiah. What to do?
The most important thing is to get you reading actual passages, if sometimes simplified, as quickly as possible. Unlike Greek, which has an extensive corpus beyond the New Testament, people study Hebrew so they can read the Hebrew Bible. Though artificial sentences may have a didactic use, the use of actual snippets and passages from the HB provides some measure of satisfaction in reading and wrestling with the text.
There are several options to help you get reading, whether you’re still working through a grammar or just figuring out how to dive back in.
1) Graded Reader of Biblical Hebrew– This contains passages in Hebrew, though simplified in presentation. That is, the text has the vowel markings but not accent or cantillation marks. Each passage has rarer vocabulary explained in a footnote and minor explanatory commentary on syntax and parsing. Download an excerpt here, with the table of contents and part of Genesis 1.
2) Similar to the above is Biblical Hebrew Step-by-Step, Vol. II: Readings from the Book of Genesis. (The first volume of this is also recommended as a teach-yourself grammar of Hebrew. These two plus the answer keys are available electronically from Logos.) The author has a reputation for making Hebrew accessible to the layperson. Moreover, as all the passages come from Genesis, they should be familiar and easier to “get.”
3) Readings in Biblical Hebrew, an Intermediate Textbook.- This excellent book models how to read, analyze, and think about the Hebrew text. It’s what someone who knows Hebrew well should be doing automatically and almost unconsciously when reading in Hebrew. Each of the five chapters focuses on a different genre, beginning with the easiest: Historical Books, Legal Literature, Prophetic Literature, Wisdom Literature, Psalms. (See the Table of Contents.) Each chapter goes through a Hebrew passage verse-by-verse, asking thought questions about grammar, syntax and meaning, pointing out oddities and providing explanations. Most commendably, the authors provide many references to further readings and clarifications, whether in journal articles or standard reference materials (discussed in the next post). The Hebrew text is not included in toto, so you’ll need your own copy of the Hebrew, but particular phrases in question are reprinted. *Highly* recommended, but perhaps too much information for the complete H3brew n00b, as it assumes a first-year Hebrew foundation. Chapter 1 is available as a free download.
4) Eventually, you’ll want to purchase the Reader’s Hebrew Bible which I’ve talked about several times before. (Lengthy preview here.) It’s the whole nine yards, with proper names in grey, words occurring less than 100x glossed at the bottom, and occasional parsing of verbs, but no other commentary of any kind. I do most of my Hebrew reading out of this now, and take it to Church and Institute.
If you feel rusty and need review, get a different grammar than you originally went through and work through it while you read. Page Kelley is a popular one, as is Seow, or Menachem Monsoor’s in #2 above.
If, however, you have a Hebrew grammar and feel totally lost by casual references to things like particles and participles, check out Gary Long’s Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Hebrew. It’s true that if you know English grammar well, you’ll have less difficulty learning another language. What many grammars assume you know and don’t bother to explain, Long provides explicit definitions and clear English examples. (Table of Contents. Excerpt.)
I anticipate two more posts about learning Hebrew. In one, we’ll talk about learning vocabulary and reference materials. In the last (which might have made more sense to post first), we’ll discuss some general strategies for learning Hebrew and why it’s worth the bother 🙂
Thanks and thanks!
“If you feel rusty and need review, get a different grammar than you originally went through…”
I was a Lambdinite when I went through Hebrew grammar for the first time.
My first year, the professor chose Weingren, allegedly because Lambdin was “too expensive.” Weingren is both boring AND uses completely artificial sentences, IIRC.
Second year, we used Horsnell’s “Review and Reference Grammar for Biblical Hebrew” which doesn’t seem to actually exist anywhere.
My first graduate year of Hebrew grammar, we worked all the way through Lambdin, all the way through Waltke and O’Connor, then all the way through Jouon/Muraoka. In one year!
Throughout that year, we also did regular reading (starting in Genesis 37, and ending up in the Dead Sea Scroll version of Isa 40), AND did historical grammar too. It was a pretty intense year of Hebrew.
I’ve taught Hebrew out of Basics of Biblical Hebrew and the free grammar from UToronto I linked to in the first post.
I should point people to this page, which has an overview of many Hebrew grammars.
http://biblical-studies.ca/hebrew/intro_hebrew.html
Me love the Hebrew!
Lambdin’s grammar is expensive if you buy a new hardcover copy. However, a soft cover copy isn’t that expensive. I think I got it for 25 or 30 dollars.
TYD
I learned on Lambdin. Then when I was going to teach a Hebrew course for Institute, I checked into getting copies of Lambdin, and oh, mama! It was hugely expensive. Like ninety bucks or so. Ouch! So I called up Eisenbrauns and asked for a recommendation, and they suggested Page Kelly, so I ordered a box of those and I was very pleased with it.
I have Kelly.
Nitsav, does the UToronto one have solutions somewhere and I just can’t find it?
Julie, there’s not yet a key for the UToronto grammar, and probably won’t be for a while.