Learning Biblical Hebrew

Learning Biblical Hebrew focuses on helping students understand how the Hebrew language works and providing a solid grounding in Hebrew through extensive reading in the biblical text.

With this book, readers can learn Hebrew on their own and will find themselves reading meaningful verses from the Hebrew Bible after just two hours of study. The book provides the basics of a standard grammar but also includes insights into Hebrew narrative and poetry not usually found in introductory textbooks. Audio files for the book are available through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources. Now in paper.

Anyone interested in learning to read the Hebrew Bible in its original language will find within the pages of this book all the resources needed to begin this wonderful journey. The book is laid out in four parts. The first part teaches the Hebrew alphabet through a series of lessons. The second part teaches word and sentence structure of the Hebrew language by breaking down each Hebrew word in Genesis chapter one, verses one through five. The Hebrew text of Genesis chapter one is provided for reading and comprehension practices in part three. The fourth part of the book contains charts and dictionaries of prefixes, suffixes, words and roots of the Hebrew language to assist the reader with vocabulary definitions and comprehension. Within a short amount of time the Hebrew student will soon be reading the Bible through the eyes of the author rather than the opinions of a translator.

A noted authority on biblical Hebrew grammar uses the best of both deductive and inductive approaches with a view toward aiding exegesis.

The Learning Biblical Hebrew Workbook is an essential companion for students using Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension. The workbook includes guided readings tailored to the growing knowledge of the student using the introductory grammar. After the opening chapters containing grammar exercises to reinforce basic concepts, students begin reading actual Hebrew text based on the Joseph story from Genesis 37:50. The text has been abridged and modified to present students with a text that they can read with minimal help. The readings are accompanied with three types of annotations: the Hebrew root or lexical form, an English gloss, or grammatical and textual explanations. The notes are provided to facilitate reading comprehension by identifying unfamiliar words and concepts. As familiarity with vocabulary and grammar increases, the readings are modified less and less until students are essentially reading the standard Hebrew text used in most Hebrew Bibles today. After completing the beginning Biblical Hebrew reader based on the Joseph story, students move on to the intermediate Biblical Hebrew reader that includes the books of Ruth, Jonah, and Esther. The continuous practice of reading Biblical Hebrew text is an essential part of truly understanding and experiencing what you read. The Learning Biblical Hebrew Workbook provides that essential reading practice that will make your study of Biblical Hebrew come alive.

Several Hebraists of the last decade have called for the inclusion of discourse-level issues in introductory studies of Biblical Hebrew. In Learning Biblical Hebrew, Bryan Rocine has written a first-year teaching grammar for Biblical Hebrew prose, taking the student from basic pronunciation forward. Students who have completed introductory courses in Biblical Hebrew often voice well-founded frustrations. They know some of the parts of the language, but they can-not read biblical text with any nuanced understanding. Rocine seeks to gain, for first-year students, the greatest possible advantage for their one-year's efforts. The course is comprised of fifty lessons and eight readings, which run concurrently with lessons 1-50. Each lesson is based on an actual biblical "verse" that illustrates the topic(s) for the lesson. The goals for each lesson are stated at the outset. Almost every lesson contains review material from the previous lesson before introducing the new material. Also for review, the student is given cross-referencing to previously learned material throughout the book. Every lesson has assignments of two types: (1) speed drills in which the student practices the lesson's materials as illustrated in examples containing minimal differences and (2) translation exercises taken from actual biblical texts.

Basics of Biblical Hebrew, today's best-selling introductory Hebrew grammar, has just gotten better with additional, linguistically nuanced explanations for some of the more difficult elements in biblical Hebrew.