Biblical Hebrew Forum

[FPutnam AT biblical.edu]

I've used all three grammars to teach BA.

Rosenthal is a reference grammar (i.e., not pedagogical), with an 
extensive (full?) glossary of BA. Gerald H. Wilson published a Scripture 
index for it (JSS 24/1 (1979): 21-24), which makes it much more useful. It 
does not assume knowledge of BH, but its basic orientation to the language 
is fairly skimpy.

Johns is an extremely verbose pedagogical grammar, with extensive 
discussions, explanations, and exercises. My students found it slightly 
frustrating, mainly because of the amount of information presented in 
short compass. I prepared an answer key for the chs. that we covered (I 
don't remember how far we got).

Greenspahn is the best of the lot (IMHO). It is a pedagogical grammar, 
concise without being too short, and written for students who have studied 
BH. He begins with a few chapters bridging the gaps between BH and BA, 
showing consonantal differences, cognates (and false cognates). This 
approach was a great help (and encouragement) to students. His exercises 
are all biblical texts, so that by the time you have finished the first 27 
chapters, you have "read" all of the BA texts, including those 
transliterated into Greek in the New Testament. The word "read" is in 
quotes, because he simplifies the biblical text for the early readings. We 
read his simplified version, and then read the biblical text, which worked 
well--most of the omitted stuff is names, titles, &c. (he first goes 
through Ezra, then Daniel). Ch. 28-32 deal with selections from 
extra-biblical texts (inscriptions, letters (Elephantine, Bar Kochba), the 
Genesis Apocryphon (DSS), Genesis Rabbah (Midrash), and Targum 
Pseudo-Jonathan). We used it in a concentrated three-week course, and 
everyone made it through quite well (it was the only course for most 
students), including some who had had only one semester of BH. We didn't 
make it through the entire book (about ch. 22, I think). There were a 
*lot* of typos, but I understand that they have been cleaned up for the 
second edition. I prepared vocab quizzes and an answer key for the 
chapters that we covered, although once we were translating "straight" 
biblical text, I told students to jsut check one of the more "literal" 
English VSS. If you'd like either, I'd be happy to send them (MSWord with 
embedded fonts).

Hope this helps.

Peace.

Fred

Frederic Clarke Putnam, Ph.D.
Professor of Old Testament
Biblical Theological Seminary
Hatfield, Pennsylvania
215.368.5000x150
>From mauros AT iol.ie  Mon Mar 14 12:50:10 2005
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At 16:41 14/03/2005, FPutnam AT biblical.edu wrote:

>There were a
>*lot* of typos, but I understand that they have been cleaned up for the
>second edition. I prepared vocab quizzes and an answer key for the
>chapters that we covered, although once we were translating "straight"
>biblical text, I told students to jsut check one of the more "literal"
>English VSS.

You might like to know that the recently published Libronix e-version ( 
www.logos.com ) has the text of the corrected,second, edition, and that it 
also includes an answer key which begins: >> English translations are 
rather literal in order to facilitate comparison
with the original; translations into Aramaic have generally been made in 
the most straightforward way possible.<<


Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros AT iol.ie