Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar

Abstract

This is a revision of Page H. Kelley’s Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992). This second edition retains the original approach and lesson plan of Kelley’s volume, while providing extensive corrections, updates, format improvements, summaries, indexes, and new figures and tables. The revision includes a separate handbook that provides an answer key to the exercises found at the end of each lesson in the grammar book. The expressed intent of this revision is to enable colleges and seminaries to continue to use Kelley’s volume for their Hebrew classes.The revised grammar is advertised as providing “easy-to-understand explanations.” Furthermore, the preface states, “students should be expected to study the lesson carefully, but without attempting to memorize rules” (p. xv). The instructor and student will have to decide whether or not these statements hold up. Following older approaches to teaching biblical Hebrew, Kelley’s grammar is filled with highly technical explanations, long lists of rules, a multitude of tables, and a complex approach to explaining Hebrew verbs. None of these issues were corrected in the new edition. For example, a long list of rules is provided for interrogatives (pp. 119–22). These types of lists demand memorization, which for the beginning student will seem tedious and disconnected from the main task of learning the Hebrew language. It would be better to provide a few basic ideas for interrogatives and then refer the student to a reference section for more details.While the grammar employs the usual sequence of building from the alphabet to nouns and then to verbs, Kelley’s approach to explain verbs is not straightforward. Verbs are taught from the premise of learning all the stems at once. This is true for the strong and weak verb. Furthermore, the second edition has kept the weak-verb designations, using the older pe-ayin-lamed paradigm as compared to identifying weak letters by their numbered position in a verb (pp. 104–5). This terminology provides more layers of complexity for the student. Having learned Hebrew from the original Kelley grammar, I can attest to the mountains of rules and details that need to be memorized as a result of this approach. It seems that a far better method, as employed by most grammar books, is to teach the qal strong verb first, then explain each stem in its strong and weak verb conjugations.As in the original Kelley grammar, the book tends to use terms that are not defined or well-defined. For example, the term diacritical marks (p. 37) is stated without definition. The term shortening (p. 59), in regard to vowels in monosyllabic adjectives, is employed without explanation or reference to a previous section. Furthermore, the book retains explanations that are questionable. For example, the grammar states in regard to inserting of between construct nouns: “Since Hebrew lacked such an all-purpose preposition, the construct relationship helped to fill the gap” (p. 75). It is likely that the grammar is offered in black-and-white to reduce cost; however, color coding would be more effective. For example, the synopsis of the perfect verb for each stem (§14.56, p. 148) is difficult to understand given its use of numbers for Hebrew consonants and light/heavy shading to reflect stem characteristics.The challenge with Hebrew grammar books is to try to find the right balance between being a teaching tool and a reference grammar. Until recently, most grammar books, like Kelley’s, have leaned heavily toward being a reference grammar. The result is an emphasis on majoring on the minors, which may appeal to analytical students but confuses and frustrates students with different learning styles. New-generation grammars seek to overcome this obstacle by making learning fun and interesting, covering the basic elements of the language, and providing reference sections or footnotes for more detailed explanations of Hebrew grammar and syntax. Furthermore, these new grammars use second-language learning approaches, including memory tools, interesting visual illustrations, interactive dialogue, simple-to-more-complex explanations, and immediate engagement in reading and interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures. While the revised Kelley grammar provides the building blocks for this type of instruction, it will require a highly skilled and inventive instructor to ensure that all students, with different learning styles, are able to learn Biblical Hebrew.