Hebrew Grammar Books

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

I am looking for Hebrew grammar books. Does a person on this board have any places to look? I am not looking for beginner learn Hebrew today books but books that teach more advanced grammar for both reading and comprehension.

 

[Prufrock]

Benjamin,

Two works that I find of utmost use for "advanced" grammatical reference purposes are:

1.) Bruce Walkte, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Don't let the name deceive you: this is not an introductory course in Hebrew. It is designed for those who have already studied and have a good grasp of the language.

2.) The Gesenius, Kautzsch and Cowley edition of Gesenius' Grammar. Adam Blauser (HebrewStudent), I recall, noted to me here once that there is much that is too dated in this work, and that it requires supplementation. I will leave him (if he sees the thread) to fill you in on those areas in which this work is lacking and what should be used to supplement it.

Edit
Another work which I do not own, but have referenced with profit before is Jouon and Muraoka's A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. As I understand, this is one of the most respected reference works in the field -- but again, will defer to Adam for confirmation or correction.

 

[Wayne]

Paul has listed them well. If you have those three, you have all you will need for a very long time. I would purchase in this order: 1, 3, 2.

Gesenius might even be available online (Google Books?)

If you have BibleWorks, the latest revision includes Waltke and J/M.

 

[Prufrock]

Gesenius might even be available online (Google Books?)

Indeed it is: here. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Hebrew Student]

Hey Backwoods Presbyterian!

I would second the recommendation of Waltke/O'Connor An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. However, there have been some criticisms of that grammar. Dennis Pardee's criticisms are the most classic. If you get the 1994 Journal of Near Eastern Studies, you can read his criticisms for yourself.

There are two basic criticisms he presents, and that is that Waltke and O'Connor, first of all, do not distinguish between poetry and prose. For example, one cannot construct a grammar of the English language from the writings of Dr. Seuss as phrases such as, "Then he did the same thing to the other whos' houses, leaving crumbs much to small for the other whos' mouses" would mean that "mouses" is how we form the plural of mouse! Clearly the grammar of poetry, due to sound, rhythm [although that is debatable], word pairs, parallelism etc. is going to vary greatly.

His second main criticism is that they do not distinguish between different levels of discourse, and never get beyond the sentence level to the discourse level. Discourse is very important, as it can change the entire meaning of a word. For example, the pronoun "I" is a pronoun that is generally used to refer to ones self. However, what happens if I say, "John said, 'I don't feel well today.'?" Now, who does the "I" refer to? It refers to John instead of myself. This can even happen on levels beyond the sentence level, as certain authors will use certain forms consistently in a passage to have specific functions. If you cannot see beyond the sentence level, you will not understand how to recognize these forms together.

Hence, while Waltke O'Connor has a whole lot of good and vital information, these deficiencies need to be made up. For poetry, I would recommend the book by Adele Berlin, a Jewish Hebrew Poetry grammarian, entitled <i>The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism</i>. Also, very necessary and essential is Wilfred Watson's book Classical Hebrew Poetry. These books will give you an introduction to the unique field of the grammar and exegesis of Hebrew Poetry.

Also, one must understand texts beyond the sentence level. For that, I would recommend a book with articles by several authors, edited by Walter R. Bodine, which is specifically addressed to Hebrew scholars entitled Discourse Analysis, What it is, and What it Offers. Also, I have heard of a linguistics textbook on Discourse Analysis which is supposed to have really good exercises to practice these techniques, although I have not yet seen it. The book is called Discourse Analysis (Introducing Linguistics) by Barbara Johnstone.

Fortunately, some of these deficiencies are going to be resolved as I heard through the grape vine that there is a revision of Waltke/O'Connor coming out by someone who is one of the experts in the field of Hebrew Grammar and Discourse Analysis. Unfortunately, I have no clue how far along that process is, and it still could be several years before it is completed.

I would also recommend, along with the above books, the Hebrew grammar by Paul Jouon which was translated and edited by the oriental scholar Takamitsu Muraoka entitled, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. There is also an excellent grammar with three different authors, Christo H. J. Van Der Merwe, Jackie A. Naude, and Jan H. Kroeze entitled A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar.

Also, while it is good to have a copy of Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar [preferably, the Oxford University Press edition, as the other editions are really abbreviated], there are many things in Gesenius that are outdated. It is helpful to first check the sources I mentioned above, and then, if you still cannot find the answer, then consult Gesenius.

Well, that should be plenty to get you started, as all this material will take a very long time to read!

God Bless,
Adam