Biblical Hebrew Grammar Visualized

Biblical Hebrew Grammar Visualized
Author: Francis I. Andersen
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2012-03-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575066661

In Biblical Hebrew Grammar Visualized, Andersen and Forbes approach the grammar of Biblical Hebrew from the perspective of corpus linguistics. Their pictorial representations of the clauses making up the biblical texts show the grammatical functions (subject, object, and so on) and semantic roles (surrogate, time interval, and so on) of clausal constituents, as well as the grammatical relations that bind the constituents into coherent structures. The book carefully introduces the Andersen-Forbes approach to text preparation and characterization. It describes and tallies the kinds of phrases and clauses encountered across all of Biblical Hebrew. It classifies and gives examples of the major constituents that form clauses, focusing especially on the grammatical functions and semantic roles. The book presents the structures of the constituents and uses their patterns of incidence both to examine constituent order (“word order”) and to characterize the relations among verb corpora. It expounds in detail the characteristics of quasiverbals, verbless clauses, discontinuous and double-duty clausal constituents, and supra-clausal structures. The book is intended for students of Biblical Hebrew at all levels. Beginning students will readily grasp the basic grammatical structures making up the clauses, because these are few and fairly simple. Intermediate and advanced students will profit from the detailed descriptions and comparative analyses of all of the structures making up the biblical texts. Scholars will find fresh ways of addressing open problems, while gaining glimpses of new research approaches and topics along the way.

Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar

Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar
Author: Christo H. van der Merwe
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 409
Release: 1999-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1850758565

This work is intended to serve as a user-friendly and up-to-date source of information on the morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics of Biblical Hebrew verbs, nouns and other word classes (prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, modal words, negatives, focus particles, discourse markers, interrogatives and interjections). It also contains one of the most elaborate treatments of Biblical Hebrew word order yet published in a grammar. This reference grammar will be of service to students who have completed an introductory or intermediate course in Biblical Hebrew, and also to more advanced scholars seeking to take advantage of traditional and recent descriptions of the language that go beyond the basic morphology of Biblical Hebrew.

Introducing Biblical Hebrew

Introducing Biblical Hebrew
Author: Allen P. Ross
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 584
Release: 2001-11
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

A noted authority on biblical Hebrew grammar uses the best of both deductive and inductive approaches with a view toward aiding exegesis.

Beginning Biblical Hebrew

Beginning Biblical Hebrew
Author: Mark David Futato
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1575060221

Achieving the right balance of amount of information, style of presentation, and depth of instruction in first-year grammars is no easy task. But Mark Futato has produced a grammar that, after years of testing in a number of institutions, will please many, with its concise, clear, and well-thought-out presentation of Biblical Hebrew. Because the teaching of biblical languages is in decline in many seminaries and universities, Futato takes pains to measure the amount of information presented in each chapter in a way that makes the quantity digestible, without sacrificing information that is important to retain. The book includes exercises that are drawn largely from the Hebrew Bible itself. Fourth printing, 2012.

Learning Biblical Hebrew

Learning Biblical Hebrew
Author: Karl V. Kutz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9781683590842

Learning Biblical Hebrew focuses on helping students understand how the Hebrew language works and providing a solid grounding in Hebrew through extensive reading in the biblical text.

The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose

The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose
Author: Hélène M. Dallaire
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575064006

During the past century, numerous books and articles have appeared on the verbal system of Semitic languages. Thanks to the discovery of Ugaritic texts, Akkadian tablets, Canaanite letters found at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt, Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, our understanding of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the Semitic languages has increased substantially. Dallaire focuses primarily on prose texts in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite in which the verbal system (morphemes, syntax) expresses nuances of wishes, desires, requests, and commands. According to her, volitional concepts are found in every language and are expressed through verbal morphemes, syntagmas, intonation, syntax, and other linguistic means. The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose attempts to answer the following questions: Do volitives function in a similar way in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite? Where and why is there overlap in morphology and syntax between these two languages? What morphological and syntactical differences exist between the volitional expressions of the languages? In attempting to answer these questions, the author bears in mind the fact that, within each of these two languages, scribes from different areas used specific dialectal and scribal traditions (for example, northern versus southern, peripheral versus central).

A Fresh Look at Genesis 1-2

A Fresh Look at Genesis 1-2
Author: Gary W Schneider
Publisher: Rio Pindo Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 1132
Release: 2021-03-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

One of this book’s main themes is how God’s ‘Book of Nature’ is concordant with His ‘Book of Scripture’. In their writings, many of the pioneers of the Scientific Revolution often referred to God’s two ‘Books’. These brilliant naturalists were also devout Christians. But that was back then. Is modern science actually compatible with Scripture? More to the point, are the findings of 21st-century science concordant with the Genesis creation story? What else does the text of Genesis 1-2 have to say? While making an honest effort to answer those questions, some vitally-important theological concepts (which were introduced by Moses in the first two chapters of Genesis) are also examined and discussed in this volume. This comprehensive study (on how modern science is concordant with the intended meaning of the text of Genesis 1-2) has many useful features, including the following: Much of the first two parts of the book consists of background material on: (1) logic, (2) history and philosophy of science, and (3) ‘scientific method’, as well as (4) basic geological principles, (5) descriptions of Plate Tectonic theory, and (6) the principles and methods of radiometric dating. This background material is designed to help the reader to understand the implications of the empirical evidence presented in Part Two: God’s Book of Nature. Similarly, there is also extensive material on: (1) Biblical interpretation and hermeneutics, (2) textual criticism, (3) the history of ancient Israel, (4) development of the Hebrew language, and (5) some of the basic elements of Biblical Hebrew. This material is given prior to looking at the literary structure and genre of the Genesis 1-2 text, and then conducting thorough and complete exegetical analyses of the various textual units of Genesis 1-2 in Part Four: God’s Book of Scripture. Prior to the exegetical analyses for each of the textual units of Genesis 1-2, (1) the Biblical Hebrew text, (2) a standard English translation, and (3) an Interlinear version of the text of that unit are provided. The Interlinear version consists of (a) the Hebrew text, with (b) SBL transliterations and (c) English glosses below each one of the Hebrew words. Color coding and other types of annotations/highlighting are used throughout Part Four: God’s Book of Scripture, in order to help the reader identify important Biblical Hebrew elements, including recurring phrases, important BH words, and key BHVS verb forms. There are more than 2000 detailed footnotes. Many of these footnotes also cross-reference other topics in the book to make it easier for the reader to refer back to a discussion of some important theme or concept. Excerpts from the entries of reputable Hebrew and Greek lexicons (for words written in the original languages of the Biblical text) are also footnoted. An Appendix is included with a Key to Transliteration and Pronunciation for Biblical Hebrew graphemes; it also has a short section on Biblical Hebrew Accent Markings. Numerous detailed, colored figures are sprinkled throughout the text. In many of these figures, the artwork itself is worth the inexpensive price of the digital edition of this book. Part Six: The Good News is worth reading as a stand-alone exposition of God’s Grace, but it also helps put the rest of the book in context. Although the most common (and logical) way to read A Fresh Look at Genesis 1-2 is from start to finish, this 1100-page book was also intended to be used as a reference work. Footnotes direct the reader back to pertinent material in preceding chapters that might not have been read already (or that readers might want to revisit, in order to refresh their memory on some topic). More information is available at https://a-fresh-look-at-genesis.org

Focus Construction with kî ʾim in Biblical Hebrew

Focus Construction with kî ʾim in Biblical Hebrew
Author: Grace J. Park
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2023-11-03
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1646022505

This study uses modern linguistic theory to analyze a frequently recurring syntactic phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible that has thus far resisted explanation: כי אם. The combination of the two particles כי and אם produces a construction that is notoriously difficult to describe, analyze syntactically, and translate. Dictionaries of Biblical Hebrew offer a dizzying variety of translations for this construction, including “that if,” “except,” “unless,” “but,” “but only,” and “surely,” among other possibilities. In this book, Grace J. Park provides a new approach that strives for greater precision and consistency in translation. Park argues that כי אם is used in three patterns: the “full focus” pattern, the “reduced focus” pattern, and the less common “non-focus” pattern. Her syntactic analysis of all 156 occurrences of the כי אם construction in the Bible lends greater clarity to the contested passages. Drawing on recent linguistic research into the typology of clausal nominalization as well as previous work on contrastive focus, this innovative project provides important new insight into the syntax of Biblical Hebrew. It will be especially valuable for scholars seeking to translate כי אם more consistently and accurately.

The Relative Clause in Biblical Hebrew

The Relative Clause in Biblical Hebrew
Author: Robert D. Holmstedt
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575064200

This book is the result of 15 years of research on the ancient Hebrew relative clause as well as the effective application of modern linguistic approaches to an ancient language corpus. Though the ostensible topic is the relative clause, including a full discussion of the various relative words used to introduce Hebrew relative clauses and a detailed presentation of the relevant comparative Semitic data, this work also carefully navigates the challenges of analyzing a “dead” language and offers a methodological road map for the analysis of any feature of Biblical Hebrew grammar. With the appendixes of relative clause data, including the author’s English translations, the work aims at comprehensiveness, exhaustiveness, and full transparency in data, method, and theory.

Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew Verbal Forms

Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew Verbal Forms
Author: Ulf Bergström
Publisher: PSU Department of English
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2022-01-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1646021886

This book provides a new explanation for what has long been a challenge for scholars of Biblical Hebrew: how to understand the expression of verbal tense and aspect. Working from a representative text corpus, combined with database queries of specific usages and surveys of examples discussed in the scholarly literature, Ulf Bergström gives a comprehensive overview of the semantic meanings of the verbal forms, along with a significant sample of the variation of pragmatically inferred tense, aspect, or modality (TAM) meanings. Bergström applies diachronic typology and a redefined concept of aspect to demonstrate that Biblical Hebrew verbal forms have basic aspectual and derived temporal meanings and that communicative appeal, the action-triggering function of language, affects verbal semantics and promotes the diversification of tense meanings. Bergström’s overarching explanation of the semantic development of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system is an important contribution to the study of the evolution of the verbal system and meanings of individual verbs in the Hebrew Bible. Accessibly written and structured for seminar use, Bergström’s study brings new perspectives to a debate that, in many ways, had reached a stalemate, and it challenges scholars working with TAM and the Biblical Hebrew verb to revisit their theoretical premises. Advanced students and scholars of Biblical Hebrew and other Semitic languages will find the study thought provoking, and linguists will appreciate its contributions to linguistic theory and typology.