Basics of Biblical Hebrew 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.

Rating:
Summary: Better than Weingreen, but definitely not Mounce
Review: This is a pretty good introductory grammar, as others have
pointed out, but I just want to give a word of caution to any
who may be expecting it to be as good as the equivalent Greek
introductory grammar from the same series: it's not.

BBHG is ostensibly patterned after BBGG, Mounce's excellent
Greek grammar, but Pratico and Van Pelt are not Mounce, and
it shows. There are similarities in the format, such as the
inclusion of an Exegetical Insight section in each chapter and
the separation of some material as Advanced Information, but
beneath the surface there are differences. Mounce makes Greek
as easy as a language can be, but BBHG does not do quite the
same thing for Hebrew -- and I don't believe it's just because
the language is more difficult. (Quite the contrary; there are
fewer cognates in the vocabulary, and the writing system is
more dissimilar from the Latin alphabet we use with English,
but the actual grammar in Hebrew is from a student's perspective
much less tricky and involved than the Greek, IMO, especially
in the beginning chapters dealing with the noun system.)

I feel that I should go into detail here, and I will to some
degree, but overall I think that it is mostly a matter of care
and polish. Mounce includes many more footnotes (even if the
ones about cognates are discounted, since Hebrew has fewer of
those to note), and these offer useful explanatory material,
insight that is sometimes wanting in BBHG. *FREQUENTLY* in
the vocabulary sections Pratico and Van Pelt include a word
that is spelled identically to another word included in a
previous chapter, without making any note of this or explaining
it in any way; granted, Hebrew has more instances of this than
Greek, but it is also true that Mounce in such cases was more
careful -- in some cases presenting both words at the same
time, or at least making a footnote, so that the student was
made aware of the issue. Even when the words were not quite
identical, but differed by accent marks, Mounce includes a
list of such similar words to give the student a heads-up.

This is a small thing, but it makes it much easier for the
student to learn. Using BBHG, I frequently find that vocab
flashcards that I keep getting wrong turn out to have the same
word as another flashcard with a different meaning, and then I
have to hunt down both flashcards together and combine them or
make notes on the back about the other one; only after I have
done this can I finally really learn those words properly.
This is unnecessary pain for the student and does not help
the learning process at all.

The accompanying workbook is similarly less polished. The
exercises in the workbook with Mounce to a large degree are
smooth and only require knowledge of material that has been
studied in chapters up to that point, giving the student the
meanings of any words that have not yet been studied. BBHG
does not make any real attempt to do this. Students must
continually flip back and forth though a lexicon to complete
the exercises, which is tiresome and does little to aid the
learning process. Worse, in a handful of cases the exercises
require knowledge that the student cannot reasonably be
expected to know -- for example, requiring the student in
some cases to translate words from English to Hebrew when the
word in question has not yet been studied -- but the lexicon
is only ordered by Hebrew and is not searchable by the English.
(Specific examples of this include "young man" in the exercises
for chapter eight and "righteousness" in the exercise for
chapter ten.)

I chalk these differences up to this: when Mounce wrote his
grammar and workbook, he was working from materials he had been
using in his own Greek classes for years, and many of these
problems had been worked out already before the first edition
was published. This shows, and BBGG is without reservation
the best textbook (let alone grammar textbook) that I have
ever used. Pratico & Van Pelt's BBHG does not live up to that
standard.

Lest this review be all negative, I should note that despite
such problems, the BBHG is overall a pretty decent grammar,
and I'm giving it four stars. It is much easier to follow
than Weingreen, for example, and in general is pretty easy
to learn from. There may or may not be a better introductory
Hebrew grammar; I have only seriously looked at a couple of
others, and they were significantly worse. Weingreen, for
example, may be useful as an additional grammar, but for the
beginning student I cannot recommend it by itself. I can
recommend the BBHG, though -- despite its shortcomings, you
can learn the language from it, and the process is relatively
painless, aside from the obvious need to study quite a lot,
as will always be the case with learning a language.

So, buy this book, but don't expect the kind of near perfection
that you found in Mounce -- at least, not in the first edition.

Rating:
Summary: The New and Improved Ancient Language
Review: When I saw Basics of Biblical Hebrew sitting on the shelf at the local Christian bookstore, I jumped with tingling excitement. I was used to the classic (and reliable) Weingreen, which was not conducive to amiable learning, to say the least. I noticed that the new grammar by Pratico and Van Pelt was fashioned after the style of Mounces' Basics of Biblical Greek, and after perusing its pages, I knew this was a must have. First, the Hebrew font is very easy on the eye, and the highlighted particles and vowel changes in the verb paradigms make the differences in verbal forms easy to recognize and commit to memory. Secondly, the margins on the pages are neat and orderly, which make for friendly reading. Thirdly, the exegetical notes at the end of each chapter draw excellent applications of knowing the original languages. And this important, for not a few seminary students have wondered in frustration whether or not if "it's really worth it." But Pratico and Van Pelt have shown students of the Bible that it really is worth the effort, and they make it easier than their predecessors have. Some additional bonuses for example, are the number and size of the chapters. With thirty-six in all, students of Hebrew should be able to get through most if not all of the book within one school year, working through an average of one chapter per week. The chapters are reasonably sized and not too laborious. In addition, the table of contents sets forth the layout of the grammar simply and understandably as it goes systematically through all of the parts of speech, following through with a concise, detailed account of the different verb forms from the Qal to the Hithpael. Review sections at the end of the chapters give excellent summaries and the vocabulary lists are not too lengthy but retain an adequacy that is appropriate. With the addition of the CD-Rom and Workbook, this grammar should be the hallmark for all seminaries and Bible institutions for years to come. One point of concern my Hebrew professor explained to me after I excitedly told him about the new grammar was if it would take the student through all of the necessary components of biblical Hebrew in one year--and that he was going to have to study it further before making the switch. However, I think Basics of Biblical Hebrew does take the beginner through the necessary components of the language in a timely fashion, while encouraging and enabling the student for further studies. After showing the book to some of my fellow students, a number of them who had all but given up on Hebrew because of the rather difficult Weingreen told me they were planning on purchasing Basics of Biblical Hebrew because of its readability, exegetical notes and overall easiness on the eye. This is an excellent grammar, and I am grateful for the hard work of Gary D. Pratico and Miles V. Van Pelt.