Biblical Hebrew, First Edition (Text)

by Bonnie Pedrotti Kittel, Rebecca Abts Wright, Victoria Hoffer

This revised edition of the best-selling Biblical Hebrew is thoroughly updated and augmented for a new generation of students. Designed for use in a two-semester course, the book's fifty-five lessons... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300043945
• ISBN13: 9780300043945
• Release Date: September 1989
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 429 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.6" x 11.4"

Customer Reviews

Simply the BEST biblical Hebrew textbook out there

As an undergraduate at a university that did not offer Biblical Hebrew, I used the first edition of this textbook to teach myself biblical Hebrew. What drew me to this book, after having examined the other well-known biblical Hebrew textbooks, was the fact that one immediately began reading actual biblical Hebrew - that is verses taken directly from the Hebrew Bible. I was able to complete this book, on my own, and then enter into a masters degree program in Hebrew Bible at an advanced level of competence in biblical Hebrew. Now as a PhD student in Hebrew Bible, I have used the second addition of this textbook from the other side of the desk, as a teacher, and have found it to be most effective The strength of this textbook is its natural approach to language. Rather than having students spend the first several months of learning memorizing an endless quantity of abstract information, this text introduces a verse of Hebrew Bible, and than proceeds to take it apart, introducing all of the grammatical details necessary to understand that verse. Thus the student is actually reading and applying their beginning skills from the very first lesson. This is the natural way of learning a language! This does not mean that a student is free of memorizing paradigms, and rules - such work is simply part of learning a language, but these tedious tasks are put in context, and introduced at an appropriate point in learning. The supplement to the textbook is a fine addition, giving a deeper examination of grammatical concepts, as the student is prepared to deal with them. The accompanying CD is beautifully done. The mnemonics are helpful and fun, but I confess that the best part of the CD's is the beautiful Torah readings and songs. My particular favorite is that of "Dodi li" from "Song of Songs," - sung so beautifully as to bring one to tears. This is a fine textbook, and I highly recommend it.

No better beginning Biblical Hebrew grammar around!

Having used Hoffer's first edition of this volume (with great success and abundant payoff), I was pleasantly surprised to encounter this second edition. The new edition has been improved in almost every way possible (from layout, to design, to even the fonts). The largest improvements, though, come in the exceptional supplement (which exceeds many advanced, non-beginner grammars) and the CDs which accompany the book. The music is simply wonderful and ranges from little grammatical jingles to full blown covers of songs originally written by the man himself, King David (i.e. the Psalms). As a whole, this edition is guaranteed to introduce you, in a logical and rigorous fashion, to almost everything you need to know about Biblical Hebrew. The biggest advantage to this book (over, let's say a Lambdin or a Kelley or Pratico [all of which I own]) is that it is heads and tails more pragmatic and useful. Lambdin, for instance, uses transliteration, which really is a huge crutch and in the long run hurts you (not to mention that Lambdin doesn't present his material in a particularly *practical* way...Kelley is the weakest of the bunch, in my opinion [mired in an extremely poor presention-scheme], and Pratico is not horrible, but simply is not as comprehensive as Hoffer's book). Hoffer's book, on the other hand, presents everything in a *practical, logical* fashion: concepts and vocabulary are introduced as necessary. Within several weeks, you will be reading the story of the binding of Isaac...something the other texts wouldn't dare to do even after dozens of lessons. This book is focused on getting you to read the Biblical text, as quickly, and as thoroughly and critically as possible...the other books too often seem to lose sight of this fact, preferring instead to meander through lessons which seem to lack relevance to the everyone's reason for picking up a Biblical Hebrew grammar: reading the Bible. Every practice sentence/exercise comes from the Bible...everything you learn in this book is *useful*. Not only that, but Hoffer's knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and of Biblical Hebrew grammar is extraordinary...as is her love of the language, which is not only extraordinary, but felt on every page of the book. Get this book if you're fascinated by the Hebrew Bible and want to read it as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Get this book if you have some familiarity with Biblical Hebrew, but want to master the language. Get this book just for the CDs!

an excellent text for learning

Being primarily a self-taught student, I really liked this grammar. It has a few drawbacks that would apply to other independent learners like me (unfortunately it seems there is no escaping this no matter where you turn). But on the whole it measures up to the highest standards, and somehow even possesses a kind of gracefulness, which is a strange thing to say about a grammar. I imagine the author as a charming and extremely intelligent and gifted teacher, if her book has anything to say about her. This grammar begins with the most frequent verbal constructions and provides useful clues for recognizing and analyzing them. Each chapter ("lesson") is taught through a real phrase or sentence from Scripture, illustrating the grammatical form of the lesson. Basically this is an "inductive" or "tutorial" approach. I think it is appealing to students who are in danger of being bored to death by exercises and charts. She has a nice way of finding helpful clues to get you thinking your way through trouble spots, mostly in terms of recognizing so-called weak letters ("missing letter rules"; "footprint dagesh"; "traveling dagesh"; "dot vowel" characteristics, etc.), and offers useful grammatical tips that make a big difference (this is where she really seems like a teacher who is "with you" while you study). Later lessons reinforce earlier ones. by the end you will have worked through, word by word and verse by verse, all these passages: Gen 22:1-14; Gen 28:10-29:11; Ex 3:1-17; Gen 37:1-24; Deut 6:1-25; 1 Kgs 17:1-24; 1 Kgs 18:20-46; 1 Kgs 19:1-21; Ps 24; and Ps 100. Quite an accomplishment! a negative is that the book seems to presuppose a classroom setting (even though it is very thorough in its explanations -- almost as if it were a transcript of an actual class). Therefore, in cases where Kittel provides a paradigm for you, often you need to "fill it out" yourself, and this can leave you with an uneasy feeling since you probably (at least once) would like to "see" it. There are full paradigms in the back of the book but they are always confusing to beginning students. It would help to have another grammar for an occasional take on the "complete" picture of a certain stem (Qal, Piel, Nifal, etc.). With this book, you may find you need to stop every now and then and just practice a single verb construction for a few days. One tip: if you are a complete beginner without a teacher and tutor and you find Hebrew completely frightening, work through "The First Hebrew Primer" by Simon et al. It will open all the doors for you, and you'll be able to tackle the other grammars from there. And finally, I can say that I've used about four or five Hebrew grammars to help me learn and get practice, but this one by Kittel is the only one I've worked through page by page, learning all she has to teach and doing all the translation work and exercises. I hope some other students will be inspired to do the same, as this is what it is really de

Excellent text for a beginner in Hebrew

I have used this book as the primary text book in an introductory Biblical Hebrew course at the seminary level and I believe it has helped me develop an excitement for and a proficiency at reading Hebrew faster than another text would have. As another reviewer has pointed out, this book does not follow the traditional layout of a grammar textbook. Rather than slowly build from the simplest constructions to the more complicated, this book teaches grammar as well as vocabulary in the order of its frequency in the Bible. This technique has the advantage of getting you to the point of reading the Bible (which is why we're doing this in the first place) faster than you otherwise could. The disadvantage, as pointed out before, is that you may not grasp the subtleties of the more complicated, but more frequent, constructions until later in the book. I think that's a worthwhile trade-off. By the end of the course you will still have covered the same material at the same depth as in another course, but this text gets you reading real material sooner, which is advantageous in holding a student's interest in learning a classical language. In sum, of the introductory Hebrew grammars I've seen, I would recommend this book most strongly to anyone wishing to learn to read the Hebrew Bible. This book does an excellent job of getting the beginning student to the level where they can comfortably read biblical prose and are ready for more advanced grammatical study.

Honestly Challenging, Not for the Lazy

Concerning another's review, I must disagree on some things. Learning from the most common grammatical constructions to the least makes sense. And yes, the Vav consecutive/conversive rule does seem a bit odd place to start, if one knows Modern Hebrew. But this book is about Biblical Hebrew, and the vav consecutive is about the most common grammatical feature with verbs in the Bible. Also, the issue of pronunciation is no big deal. Unless one is going to be a chanter, it doesn't matter. No one has determined which pronunciation is correct for Biblical Hebrew, and there are MANY variations of Modern Hebrew just in Israel alone. My only complaint would be that the editors should have used the easiest vowel system available since pronunciation is not an issue. Many courses, by Jewish teachers and professors, use the simpler Modern Hebrew pronunciation.This book has been an excellent resource for learning Biblical Hebrew in my experience. One commentator said you need to learn the alefbet first. Well, of course you do, and it is in the front of the book. The book instructs from the most common grammar and vocabulary to the less common. There are times when you feel like a question has been raised by the lesson and you wonder if it will be answered. But I have found that it has been later on, when it needs to be. And if you are willing to reference through the book, looking at points in later chapters or study the glossary, you'll find the answers sooner than you really need to know them. Important information is charted and can be referenced ANYTIME for rote memorization. Rare is the person who will find a good Hebrew book easy. That's because Hebrew is not for the timid, though it's far from the hardest language to read. Some may find this book difficult to learn from, but the problem is not the book. The problem is the lack of seriousness of the student to learn Hebrew correctly. Any person who thinks they can just memorize words and know a language doesn't understand language. This book is excellent for the serious learner. It is laid out well. After the first lesson, you will have learned 4% of the Hebrew Bible!, with only learning 3 words and one particle. Verb conjugations in Hebrew can be very discouraging; but they can be in any language since they are the hardest part of any language to learn. If one is willing to slow down on the verb sections and truly study the patterns, they will get it. If anyone doesn't want to learn verb conjugations, don't try to learn any language. The book handles the verb issue excellently---the second best I've seen. Develop a work ethic, be patient and determined, and you'll learn it.