Advances in the Study of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic: New Insights for Reading the Old Testament.

Abstract

Noonan received his Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College under Stephen A. Kaufman and currently is Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Biblical Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Given his interests in grammar and linguistics, he is well qualified to write this excellent overview of the past 50 years of scholarship concerning these specific issues in biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. It warms my heart to see that it is dedicated to students learning these languages (p. 21), especially at a time when seminaries are cutting back on the number of hours dedicated to them. Noonan effectively communicates throughout the book his passion for teaching biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, and his desire that students learn them well (see also the quotation of J. Gresham Machen, p. 25).The title suggests it is to be a companion to Advances in the Study of Greek by Constantine R. Campbell (2015). However, a better title would probably be “The Current State of Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic Studies,” since even Noonan admits that the works of some scholars mentioned are not truly advances—only time and more research will tell if some of the other issues covered in the book are truly advances. For those areas of biblical Hebrew and biblical Aramaic that have much less certainty than their counterparts in biblical Greek (i.e., some forms of verbal aspect are still debated), it would have been helpful to note where these uncertainties lie. I would also have liked to have seen some discussion of the verbal systems (especially on tense, aspect, and mood) from other Semitic languages, since they seem to be the basis for similarities in these areas in the biblical Hebrew and biblical Aramaic verbal systems. Also it would be worthwhile also to note the weaknesses and even pitfalls in the use of linguistic typology.The book first presents areas of linguistics and linguistic theories that serve as the foundation for many of the discussions later in the book. The short history of biblical Hebrew and Aramaic studies, while brief, could have been more specifically shaped to provide readers with a better foundation to help more accurately situate the advances in the areas discussed. The main core of the book covers areas of: (1) lexicology and lexicography; (2) the verbal system; (3) tense, aspect, and mood; (4) discourse analysis; (5) word order; (6) register, dialect, style-shifting, and code-shifting; (7) dating biblical Hebrew and biblical Aramaic; and (8) teaching and learning the biblical languages. This book covers certain areas that are somewhat more specific to biblical Hebrew and biblical Aramaic than its Greek counterpart.Each chapter focuses on one aspect of modern linguistic theory, providing various scholars’ views on the topic. Generally, each scholar’s work is presented descriptively with little commentary, so that it often reads like a “history of interpretation” as found in a dissertation. However, a more integrative approach between the view of the scholars may have been more helpful in light of the fact that it is dedicated to students of biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, many of whom would be introduced to these topics for the very first time. But to be fair, Noonan does provide a summary at the end of each chapter in which he gives some explanation as to the advantages of certain views, and ways forward for further research. He also provides a good bibliography at the end of each chapter, in addition to the final bibliography, which is 43 pages long.Some helpful changes in future editions could include: (1) a glossary, since many readers may not be familiar with the terminology and since not all scholars agree on the definitions of specific terms; (2) research on the biblical Hebrew and biblical Aramaic verbal systems prior to 1980 in order to give a context for the debates around these verbal systems; (3) more of the arguments concerning the verbal systems between Joosten and Cook (that is, there is little doubt that Noonan favors Cook’s view, but a fuller explanation of the disagreements between them may help the reader understand why Noonan prefers Cook’s perspectives); and (4) more examples from biblical Hebrew and Aramaic (surprisingly little is included in the book, but choice examples from the Hebrew and Aramaic texts would be very beneficial).When one covers such a breadth of scholarship, it is almost certain that people will not be totally satisfied with the areas developed or the depth in each area. However, despite its few drawbacks, the book is highly useful in that many of its topics are touched on only briefly, if at all, in Hebrew and Aramaic grammar classes but are foundational to good exegesis. Noonan provides an excellent overview and a wealth of helpful information on these topics. Especially useful to teacher and student alike are the discussions on word order and teaching biblical languages.