Graded Reader of Biblical Hebrew: A Guide to Reading the Hebrew Bible

by Gary D. Pratico, Miles V. Van Pelt

A Graded Reader of Biblical Hebrew is the ideal next-step resource for the student who has completed a year of elementary Hebrew, or it can be used as a refresher for the pastor or scholar whose language skills have diminished due to lack of use. Immersion in the language is the best way to reinforce what you have already learned and to gain greater proficiency in using the language for exegesis and preaching. A Graded Reader of Biblical Hebrew is a structured introduction to the reading of biblical Hebrew texts. Through these readings, you will be able to review basic Hebrew grammar, become familiar with issues of intermediate grammar, and gain confidence in handling the Hebrew text. The readings chosen for inclusion, which are arranged generally in order of increasing difficulty, span the whole of the Old Testament and represent some of the most important Old Testament texts from the standpoint of biblical history, theology, and exegesis. The many notes that accompany the text include information on grammar, exegetically significant constructions, vocabulary words, idioms, bibliographic information, and more. Parsing exercises are included with each reading, and there is room for you to write your own English translation.

Genres: Language, Reference

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

Dr. Gary D. Pratico is Senior Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Language at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Dr. Pratico holds a Bachelor of Arts from Berkshire Christian College, a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Theology from Harvard University with concentration in Hebrew Bible, Ancient Near Eastern History and Syro-Palestinian Archeology. Dr. Pratico was curator of archaeological collections at the Harvard Semitic Museum from September 1982 until December 1993. He has participated in archaeological projects in North Africa, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan. He has also directed dozens of archaeological study tours of Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Dr. Pratico’s most recent book is entitled, Nelson Glueck’s 1938-1940 Excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh: A Reappraisal. He has co-authored numerous articles with Dr. Cooley on the western cemetary at Tell Dothan and has published many articles on topics concerning biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.

Reviews

[Leib Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 out of 5 stars Save your money.
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2019
Verified Purchase
I would not purchase this again.

Who am I?

An Orthodox Jew who is learning to lein and who wanted to get some grip on the material that I am/ will be leyning.

The result is that:

1. Hebrew grammar is so complicated that it's a dream to imagine that anyone can sight read a passage without working it out.

2. Therefore, the conjugations/ inflections/ declension patterns must be worked out for each pericope, and as needed.

3. The choice of these passages in this book is quite arbitrary, and none of them are even full pericopes.

(And the secret is that there are VERY few Orthodox Jews that know Hebrew grammar well. So, the project of breaking apart sentences is/ will be likely a solo project.)

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eminently useful for improving my Hebrew skills. Three stars only because "liked it" is sufficient commendation for a workbook.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provided useful parsing practice, but the texts were brief and from various sections not providing enough context to study the syntax of a passage as is done with some intermediate Grammar's such as Lambdin's Hebrew Grammar and Blau's Grammar of Biblical Hebrew which has the text of Genesis 37-45 and the book of Jonah given with footnotes to where the syntax of morphology is discussed in his grammar; both options provide a better and more thorough treatment of Biblical Hebrew syntax, whereas this graded reader only gives parsing practice and translation practice and doesn't help you to advance in your understanding of syntax.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I had a horrible experience surrounding this workbook, it is a decent reader and was surprisingly easy, all things considered. If you have a decent mastery of vocab and have been through the grammar, this workbook's glosses help

[Maer]

Greek