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Rating: Summary: Hebrew Help! Review: If you are like me, your Hebrew skills aren't where you would like them to be. Owens gives an abundance of help in this area. Word-by-word, the masoretic text is analyzed and translated. Especially helpful is the verb analysis. However, one should not expect to see any commentary, since that is not what these volumes are designed to give. This set of books won't teach you Hebrew, but it you are a little weaker in that area than you would like to be, these books will help you out greatly.
Rating: Summary: Quick Review Review: Moving through every Hebrew word from Genesis to Malachi, this work provides for each word its grammatical identification, its page number in the BDB Lexicon, and its English translation.
Rating: Summary: Great but not Fully Trustworthy Review: This is a great set of books for the serious Hebrew student. but not for the Bible teacher or pastor who is rusty on Hebrew. There are two flaws in these books. One is that the editors have taken so much trouble to give so much information about the structure and meaning of the Hebrew, and yet have provided often mediocre, and even often, lousy, inaccurate translation. They have relied on the RSV, and have stated that where they felt necessary, they have given a more literal meaning. The interesting fact is that in many cases, they have let stand those translations of words which have NO basis in the Hebrew text. They have, in fact, gone beyond dynamic equivalence (conservative paraphrasing), and used straight paraphrashing. Why would one go through so much trouble to get to the root of the langage, and then provide a translation that misses the mark virtually or totally. So keep your Hebrew lexicons available, because you are going to need them. The second error shows up mainly in the verb descriptions. Just looking at the 7 major verb stems, they are clearly classified in error quite frequently. I have found that this is usually between the Qal and Hiphil stems, and often on weak verbs which loose a consonant (e.g., hollow verbs). The pointing of the text will usually be a clear Hiphil, but the editors have classed it as Qal. This is quite a problem, both for understanding the emphasis of the verb stem, and at times the actual meaning of the verb. I do not recommend this set except for those who are studying Hebrew seriously, using, for instance, Waltke & O'Connor, Gesensius, and other authoritative works. One without a decent knowledge of Hebrew grammar already in the brain will end up teaching inaccuracy in certain areas.
Rating: Summary: Great but not Fully Trustworthy Review: This is a great set of books for the serious Hebrew student. but not for the Bible teacher or pastor who is rusty on Hebrew. There are two flaws in these books. One is that the editors have taken so much trouble to give so much information about the structure and meaning of the Hebrew, and yet have provided often mediocre, and even often, lousy, inaccurate translation. They have relied on the RSV, and have stated that where they felt necessary, they have given a more literal meaning. The interesting fact is that in many cases, they have let stand those translations of words which have NO basis in the Hebrew text. They have, in fact, gone beyond dynamic equivalence (conservative paraphrasing), and used straight paraphrashing. Why would one go through so much trouble to get to the root of the langage, and then provide a translation that misses the mark virtually or totally. So keep your Hebrew lexicons available, because you are going to need them. The second error shows up mainly in the verb descriptions. Just looking at the 7 major verb stems, they are clearly classified in error quite frequently. I have found that this is usually between the Qal and Hiphil stems, and often on weak verbs which loose a consonant (e.g., hollow verbs). The pointing of the text will usually be a clear Hiphil, but the editors have classed it as Qal. This is quite a problem, both for understanding the emphasis of the verb stem, and at times the actual meaning of the verb. I do not recommend this set except for those who are studying Hebrew seriously, using, for instance, Waltke & O'Connor, Gesensius, and other authoritative works. One without a decent knowledge of Hebrew grammar already in the brain will end up teaching inaccuracy in certain areas.
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