Modern Hebrew for Biblical Scholars: An Annotated Chrestomathy with an Outline Grammar and a Glossary.

• Author: Creason, Staurt
• Position: Review

Modern Hebrew for Biblical Scholars: An Annotated Chrestomathy with an Outline Grammar and a Glossary. By TAKAMITSU MURAOKA. Second, revised and enlarged edition. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 1998. Pp. xlv + 183. DM 58.

The appearance of the second, revised and (slightly) enlarged edition of Muraoka's very useful grammar is a welcome one and this volume should take its place next to the copy of the first edition that should already be on the shelf of every biblical scholar. The changes in this edition are mostly cosmetic, though there are some minor and a few major changes in content as well. These changes do much to enhance the appearance and usefulness of the book.

The cosmetic changes are primarily restricted to the correction of some infelicities in English (though a few stilt remain), the rearrangement of some material (e.g., the abbreviations now come at the beginning of the book rather than between the grammar and the chrestomathy), the enlargement of the table of contents to include the various subsections within each major section of the grammar, and, of course, the more attractive Hebrew and English type. One change in the chrestomathy which is less useful is the footnoting of an individual word within a text when that word appears in the notes on that text. The footnotes clutter the page and are a distraction to the reader. The previous policy of grouping the notes by line number was better and should have been retained. Another distraction is the far too frequent appearance of misspelled words throughout the book (e.g., "intranstive," p. xiv: "learned," p. xxiii; "Journal," p. xlv). The book should have been submitted to one more proofreading before going to press.

A more puzzling feature of the grammar section of the book is the apparent lack of any consistent policy regarding the vocalization or non-vocalization of the Hebrew examples. Sometimes the Hebrew is vocalized and sometimes it is not, and sometimes individual words are not vocalized within an otherwise vocalized example. The absence of vocalization is most common with the particle [contains]t and the negative l[contains], although it is not confined to these words. For example, on pages xxx-xxxi the choice of vocalized Hebrew versus non-vocalized Hebrew appears to be completely random. This variety does not serve any purpose nor is a reason for it mentioned in the introductory...