Taylor and Francis Group is part of the Academic Publishing Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 3099067.

Informa

Suggested Further Resources

Download

About the Hebrew Bible

Berlin, Adele and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds., and Michael Fishbane, consulting ed. The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  • English-only edition with the Jewish Publication Society’s translation plus excellent introductions and commentary to each biblical book.

Hayes, Christine. Introduction to the Bible. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.

  • An accessible and informative introduction to the Hebrew Bible that can be read on its own or in conjunction with the author’s free online course (see below)

http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145

  • Free video lectures of introductory semester-long Yale University course on the Hebrew Bible taught by Christine Hayes.

Hebrew Bible editions

Elliger, K. and W. Rudolph, eds. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Fifth edition. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1997.

  • The standard critical edition of the Hebrew Bible.

www.tanach.us

  • The complete text of the Leningrad Codex of the Hebrew Bible with various searching and viewing options (accents, vowels only, and consonants only).

JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh: The Traditional Hebrew Text and the New JPS Translation. Second edition. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1999.

  • A bilingual edition with Hebrew and English on facing pages.

Brown, A. Philip II and Brian W. Smith, eds. A Reader’s Hebrew Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

  • A Hebrew-only edition based on the electronic Leningrad Codex. It is designed for students and contains several helpful features including page-by-page glosses of Hebrew vocabulary occurring 100 times or less, highlighting of rare proper nouns, and a final glossary of Hebrew vocabulary occurring more than 100 times.

Teaching grammars

There are numerous teaching grammars of Biblical Hebrew; here is a small selection of some standard works that can be used for reference at various levels of study.

Lambdin, Thomas. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1971.

Seow, Choon-Leong. A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew. Revised edition. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Weingreen, Jacob. A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew. Second edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959.

More advanced reference grammars

Williams, Ronald J. Williams’ Hebrew Syntax. Revised and expanded by John C. Beckman. Third edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.

  • A concise guide to Biblical Hebrew syntax.

Joüon, Paul and Takamitsu Muraoka. A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. Second reprint of the second edition, with corrections. Rome: Gregorian and Biblical Press, 2009.

  • A thorough reference grammar providing detailed information on Biblical Hebrew morphology and syntax.

Van der Merwe, Christo, Jackie Naudé, and Jan Kroeze. A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.

  • A compact reference grammar covering the chief aspects of Biblical Hebrew morphology and syntax.

Waltke, Bruce and M. O’Connor. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990.

  • A comprehensive reference work providing detailed discussion of Biblical Hebrew syntax.

Lexicons and vocabulary guides

Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles Briggs. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and Englsh Lexicon. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2001. (Reprint of 1906 editon.)

  • A classic one-volume lexicon that is still in widespread use. Somewhat outdated and can be difficult for beginners to use as entries are organized by root.

Clines, David. The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. Sheffield: Sheffield University Press, 2009.

  • A recent one-volume lexicon suitable for beginning and more advanced students; includes statistics listing the number of times each word occurs in the Hebrew Bible.

Holladay, William. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans; Leiden: Brill, 1971.

  • A user-friendly one-volume lexicon suitable for beginning and more advanced students.

Koehler, Ludwig and Walter Baumgartner. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Translated and edited under the supervision of M. Richardson. Study edition. Two volumes. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

  • An extremely comprehensive updated reference work based on the classic lexicon by Koehler and Baumgartner.

Van Pelt, Miles and Gary Pratico. The Vocabulary Guide to Biblical Hebrew. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.

  • Very helpful reference for beginning students, listing all vocabulary occurring at least ten times in the Hebrew Bible. Vocabulary is presented in various useful ways, e.g. by frequency, by root, by part of speech, etc.

Other study aids

Van Pelt, Miles. Biblical Hebrew: A Compact Guide. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012.

  • A convenient pocket-sized reference guide explaining the essential points of Biblical Hebrew grammar.

Van Pelt, Miles and Gary Pratico. Biblical Hebrew Laminated Sheet. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005.

  • A convenient laminated sheet summarizing the essential points of Biblical Hebrew grammar.