Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor & Julie Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>]

Clay wrote:

> Any of you folks used this book? Just got a library copy to look at for a
> few weeks.

I took a skim through it just this past week. Looks to me like it's
something that ought to be written but probably isn't terribly useful. By
that I mean, somewhere someone ought to show in a straightforward and
comprehensive presentation how epigraphic Hebrew relates to BH; but I'd bet
most students have already spent quite a bit of time in BH by the time they
get there, so that a much shorter presentation could concisely summarize the
similarities and differences. There are two counts on which this opinion is
open to question, though. First, I'm just now preparing to take a course on
NWS epigraphy and the history of Hebrew, so I don't have much depth in this
particular area yet. Second, I'm in the middle of a year-long course on
Ugaritic in which the prof. has downplayed the need for systematic grammars
except as a reference tool. We're required to enter the class with
background in Akkadian or Arabic, as well as Hebrew. So we pretty much
already know everything we need to know about the grammar, lacking only a
more precise synthesis for Ugaritic in particular. If this is the way he
handles Ugaritic, I have a strong hunch from what I can see that we're not
going to spend much time in grammars for the other course.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics