The Biblical Hebrew Companion - A Review

The Biblical Hebrew Companion

by

Michael Williams

A Review

It has been 40+ years since I sat in my first Hebrew language course. Since that time I have learned and used more Fortran, COBOL. Basic, Pascal, Lisp, Assembly Language, etc, than Hebrew. Now 40 years later, I have returned to the pulpit wishing I could remember some of that early Hebrew (and Greek) that I had learned years ago.

This reference book serves part of that purpose. In fact, I wish I had it by my side while learning Hebrew - as it takes each major part of speech, each verbal conjunction, each grammatical construction and gives insight to the reader on its role in the language. The entries try to address three questions:

1. What does it look like?
2. What does it do?
3. How it might effect the exegesis of the passage?

A number of appendices add value as they bring together lists of topics that don’t fit elsewhere: vowels, consonants, Syllables, Pronunciation, ect. Also included are a scripture index and  suggested bibliography for further study grouped by topic.

The book will not serve as a Hebrew textbook, but as a great reference tool to set on the desk of the student or pastor working with the original languages. I cannot  but hope that a similar volume will be forthcoming from the publisher for the Greek student.

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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinion are mine alone.