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  • From: George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
  • To: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Recommend Dictionary and a Question
  • Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:53:52 +1100

Hi Mary!

To answer your lexicon question: It depends what level of Hebrew you are
currently at and which level you're aiming to be at.

For beginners, I'd recommend the lexicon by Holladay. It's user-friendly, not
overloaded with technicalities, but gives good information.

BDB had been the industry standard for a long time, but it is now 100 years
old. As such, it does not incorporate the latest updates we have gained from
such things as the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ugaritic. However, it is usually
quite affordable.

The new industry standard lexicon is HALOT (Hebrew-Aramaic Lexicon of the Old
Testament) by Köhler and Baumgartner. This is actually an English edition of
the original, which is in German. This is a very good lexicon that is big
enough to give technical information, but is still reasonably user-friendly.
It is the lexicon I use day-to-day. Holladay's smaller lexicon is, if I
remember rightly, an abridged version of HALOT.


With regards to the 'dash' you mentioned: It's called a maqqef. It's role is
very similar to the hyphen in English -- it draws two words together into a
close association. Most often this is to express a genitive relationship (X
"of" Y), but not always. And, in fact, the genitive relationship often occurs
without the maqqef at all. As such, it's not always a reliable indicator of a
genitive relationship.

Technically, the maqqef simply draws two (or more) words together and
effectively removes any primary stress from all words, except the final one
(after which there is no maqqef). In other words, Hebrew treats the words in
such a 'run on' chain as though they were really just one big long word. This
is usually for the purpose of chanting the text in a liturgical setting --
that's what all the non-vowel dots and squiggles are around the consonants
(the 'cantillation' marks).

I hope this helps.

Regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney)
Ph: 9577 9774. Mob: 0449 758 100
www.moore.edu.au






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