Hebrew handbook: Bob Jones Seminary

by Michael P. V Barrett

103 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Matthew Loller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really solid and comprehensive introduction to biblical Hebrew. As far as I can tell, there are very few stones that are left unturned in this introductory grammar. You could go through this handbook and be fully equipped to jump into more in-depth grammars such as Waltke & O'Connor or Gesenius, Kautzsch & Cowley. Learning the language is not easy though and takes a lot of brute memorization work in addition to reading the grammar. Some of this is because of the handbook's academic, impersonal style and structure. I know from some Greek grammars that a more readable and personal style and structure can make a big difference by helping something to be memorable and effective (for a shining example of this see the introductory Greek grammar by Merkle & Plummer as well as their follow-up intermediate grammar with Köstenberger). That being said, no textbook could ever do all the work for you no matter how effective the authors are, and Barrett & Bell are certainly effective enough to get the job done if the reader is willing to add some hard work to the reading.

MACRO-READ THROUGH THE SECTION ON VERB FORMS
SURVEYED FINAL NOTES ON TRANSLATION OF VERB STATE AND THE APPENDICES ON VOCAB AND VERB ENDINGS