Jonah: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text

Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible

by W. Dennis Tucker Jr.

In the Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible’s most widely used volume, Dennis Tucker provides a foundational analysis of the text of Jonah. This second edition of  Jonah  is distinguished by the detailed and comprehensive attention paid to the Hebrew text. Tucker’s analysis is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating to the Hebrew text that are not always addressed in standard commentaries. Beyond serving as a succinct and accessible analytic key, Jonah also reflects the most up-to-date advances in scholarship on Hebrew grammar and linguistics―specifically, this edition relies on the methodology of generative grammar utilized in other recent volumes in this series. This handbook proves itself an indispensable tool for anyone committed to a deep reading of the Hebrew biblical text.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Theology

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise but detailed discourse analysis of the Hebrew text of Jonah. Very good for seeing the overall structure of Jonah and there are useful comments comparing Hebrew words used in other places for intertextual allusions and comparisons such as Jonah 4 and the contrast between Jonah and Elijah based on the usage of similar Hebrew words.

Theologically it makes some strange conclusions which I wouldn't agree with, but for understanding the Hebrew text via discourse analysis and seeing some useful intertextual connections it is a very helpful commentary. This commentary does not transliterate the Hebrew text so you do need some knowledge or Hebrew to understand and utilize it.

The discussion of Hebrew poetry in chapter 2 was useful but more technical to follow (you need to have some knowledge of the masoretic accents to understand how he separates the phrases and poetic portions of the text e.g. silluq, atnah, tifhah, etc.). I used the revised edition from 2018.

[Adam Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you know some Hebrew and are doing some serious study on Jonah, this is worth a look. It fills a real gap in focusing on discourse features, and its comprehensiveness means it's a good tool for getting to know biblical Hebrew better. Its conciseness makes it a good quick reference, but the same conciseness is its main weakness. Tucker doesn't have space to properly justify some of his exegetical conclusions, and the significance of syntactical features is often left unstated. I realise this series is deliberately narrow in scope, but it seems a shame not to be able to draw on more of Tucker's research with a bit more interpretative meat. Definitely consult if you have access to an academic library; look carefully at an Amazon preview before you splash out yourself to see if it suits your needs.

[Andrew (Drew) Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good resource. I read the revised version and am surprised by how many typos were in the text. Some were typesetting issues by a typesetter who might not know Hebrew. But others were things like the wrong vowels on nouns.

[нєνєℓ ¢ανα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, insightful, good guidance, excellent perspective...

[Rebecca Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great quick reference on the Hebrew Grammar, but often suffers in its conciseness. There are many time when I want to see Tucker's reading spelled out and I'm left unsatisfied.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can I say, it does thorough job documenting the grammar of the Hebrew text of Job. Lacks an interesting introduction, like the commentaries on Ruth and Genesis 1-11 in the same series. Worth consulting if you are working/reading the hebrew text of Jonah. Watch out for the fish.