Rating: 
Summary: Easily Understood
Review: I bought this book to suppliment J. Weingreen's "A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew" which I am currently using to prepare for the qualifying entrance exam for seminary. Weingreen's book is long on exercises but very brief on grammatical explination. "Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar" is the exact opposite! It does a wonderful job explaining Hebrew grammar but there are NO exercises/vocab (I havent yet looked at the enclosed CD which may contain these things). If you are attempting to learn hebrew by yourself (or having difficulty w your current hebrew grammar) this is a great textbook to have - it explains hebrew grammar in an understandable way and minimizies on route paradigm memorization. But you will have to purchase a suppliment for exercises and vocabulary.
Rating: 
Summary: Hebrew Whored
Review: I find it hard to see a Jew review this book favorably due to its unscholarly, overt Christian overtures. The Basics of Biblical Hebrew, by Pratico and Van Pelt is a standard treatment of Biblical Hebrew among many. In this pursuit, there is nothing outstanding to commend. It does use greyscale in a way to clarify examples. In other words, it takes the Hebrew root shown in full black text and shows changes (for plurals, verbs, etc., etc.) with niqqudim (vowel-points) and added letters in grey. It comes with a CD-ROM with mediocre aids like "flashcards," and a site to download extra stuff, also of relative worth. I got the impression that the CD was added because it is a trend in the textbook business and takes the price up quite disproportionally for a little plastic disc. What is not typical is its additional "Insights" or little Christian exegeses on Jewish scripture. Many are not exegesis at all, but outright Christian propaganda that attacks the faith based on the scriptures. Pratico writes on the alleged "name" imanu-El to present the Christian god-man. Even an excerpt from Martin Luther, the forefather of Adolf Hitler in anti-Judaism, is included. It is all part of a long tradition of Christian efforts to study Hebrew in order to destroy the Jewish religion by twisting the Bible. At least this grammar makes no pretense of who it is written for. If I did not collect Hebrew grammars, I could have easily done without this insulting volume. Some Christian authors now use the term Hebrew Bible as a means to look objective. True to form, this grammar almost always uses the slur "Old Testament." Perhaps Christians would appreciate it if Jews added the Christian "new testament" to their Bibles and designated the parts "Truth" and the additional Christian writings as "Lies"? Does this upset you? No more than some Jews who walk into a library or bookstore to see Bibles--that is, in this case, Christian Bibles with their writings attached to holy scripture given to Israel. Meanwhile, the real Bibles are to be found in a Judaica section, if there even is one. Publishers, booksellers, and libraries need to start being honest. Nothing in the book description warns the buyer that this is an overtly Christian (anti-Jewish) grammar. We need grammars that honor the people who spoke, read, and wrote the scriptures in Hebrew by not expousing Christianity. One is in the works.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellant for self study
Review: I studied Biblical Hebrew 20 years ago and had since forgotten most of what I knew. As a semitic language Biblical Hebrew is difficult for those with no prior exposure so there is no easy way to learn it. This book is better than the others I have tried at explaining the fundamentals without spending too much time on details that confuse rather than enlighten. I found the focus on nouns first, etc to work fine by spending a lot of time going through the exercises in the companion workbook to reinforce what was learned in the text. It is a book written by Christians with a Christian audience in mind but that does not prevent it from doing a good job at introducing a difficult language. Being able to read the Hebrew scriptures in Hebrew has been a great joy and I only regret that I didn't keep up with my Hebrew 20 years ago so I didn't have to relearn it. Although I am better at Greek, Hebrew is still my first love.
Rating:
Summary: Excellant for self study
Review: I studied Biblical Hebrew 20 years ago and had since forgotten most of what I knew. As a semitic language Biblical Hebrew is difficult for those with no prior exposure so there is no easy way to learn it. This book is better than the others I have tried at explaining the fundamentals without spending too much time on details that confuse rather than enlighten. I found the focus on nouns first, etc to work fine by spending a lot of time going through the exercises in the companion workbook to reinforce what was learned in the text. It is a book written by Christians with a Christian audience in mind but that does not prevent it from doing a good job at introducing a difficult language. Being able to read the Hebrew scriptures in Hebrew has been a great joy and I only regret that I didn't keep up with my Hebrew 20 years ago so I didn't have to relearn it. Although I am better at Greek, Hebrew is still my first love.
Rating:
Summary: Top-notch introduction to Biblical Hebrew
Review: I used this book and had the pleasure of being taught by Dr. Pratico at GCTS. The diagnostic system is, despite some criticisms, the best way for first year students to master basic Biblical Hebrew. The primary strength of this book (and Dr. Pratico's overall pedagogy) is to give students exactly what they need to know when they need to know it. There is virtually no information on the historical development of the language. This is perfectly suited to the first year English-speaking student, who has enough trouble making his or her way through what looks like a bunch of dots and scratches on a page. Diachronic philology, though interesting for the intermediate and advanced student, is almost completely irrelevant and off-putting to most beginners like myself. A good example of the "need to know" philosophy of the book is that the book sometimes does not present all aspects of a particular point of grammar, simply because to do so would overwhelm students. When vowels are learned, no mention is made of _why_ they are called changeable long, unchangeable long, etc.; all the student need know is which is which. The significance of that distinction is raised in subsequent chapters. Also, it could be pointed out in early chapters that many substantives (e.g. cohen) are simply participial forms. But when I learned the word for priest in chapter 4 (?) that piece of information was totally useless and would only have served to aid in my forgetting of the vocabulary word. I highly recommend Basics of Biblical Hebrew and the accompanying workbook.
Rating:
Summary: A little disingenuous to complain...
Review: I'm not sure how one could be somehow "shocked" by the Christian bent to this book, as it IS published by Zondervan - which is a Christian publisher. Also, it makes a big deal out of the fact that it is based on the method of Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek, which is the best Greek grammar book around. As far as your attacks on Christianity, there's probably a better forum than Amazon.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe good for classroom, but not for self-study
Review: I've learned other languages by self-study, as well as having taught English as a second language, so I know something about the process - and this book is not ideal for a self-learner (and perhaps not the best choice for classroom either). The methodical process of teaching all about nouns, then articles, then prepositions, then construct, then verbs, etc. does not allow the learner to start reading sentences effectively early enough in the process. Exercising receptive skills by reading and productive skills by writing is the most effective way to learn and reinforce grammar and vocabulary. The presentation of grammar is, however, very clear. I'm buying "Hebrew: A Language Course Level One" in hopes that it will be better and will use "Basics of Biblical Hebrew" as a supplement.
Rating:
Summary: From a Freshmen Linguistics student
Review: I've studied several languages since high school, and this is by far the best of all the books I've used. It does an excellent job of introducing the Hebrew language at a rate that can be used in a class or as self-study. The grammar charts on the cd were handy for study and review. The flashcard program was helpful in demonstrating proper pronounciation for the vocab terms, though I wish it had included the alphabet (an audio file of whih is avaliable on the BBH website).
I would suggest this to anyone with an interest in Hebrew language or culture, though I would also suggest coupling this with some modern Hebrew, as the spoken language is just as important as the written. ***Personal Study Tip***
Complex languages like Hebrew and Greek can be really frustrating when you spend a lot of time learning the very basics. Once you have the alphabet and vowel system down, augment your studies with sections from later in the book. While you probably do not want to make a full study of the Qal stem at the same time as nouns, being able to compose simple phrases and sentences really helps to gain a sense of the language and it makes you feel as if you've done something useful.
Rating:
Summary: Response to the previous review
Review: In terms of vocabulary, chapters 3-35 in the grammar have vocabulary lists at the end of each chapter, containing all words (except proper names) that occur 70 times or more in the Hebrew Bible. There is also a Hebrew lexicon located in the back of the grammar containing every word used in both the grammar and corresponding workbook. The exercises are located in a separate workbook volume entitled Basics of Biblical Hebrew Workbook. The workbook alone consists of over 300 pages and provides exercises for each chapter in the grammar. The workbook is so large, in fact, that most instructors will need to limit the assignments. A full answer key to the workbook is also provided on the CD included with the grammar.
Rating:
Summary: A Jewish Review of Basics of Biblical Hebrew
Review: This is a great book for beginners or for those like me who speak fluent Israeli Hebrew and want to brush up on grammatical points particular to Biblical Hebrew. Everything about the grammar book, supplementary workbook, CD-ROM and website is first-rate. Lots of care have gone into the designing and manufacturing of this set of Biblical Hebrew materials. It has a parallel brother in the Zondervan Basics of Biblical Greek.
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