A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew Handbook: Answer Keys and Study Guide.

• Author: Dempsey, Deirdre

This volume is intended as a companion to C. L. Seow's A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1986), reviewed by E. M. Cook in JAOS 110 (1990): 337-38. Begun at the suggestion of Professor Seow, the volume under review here is intended to assist students in the mastery of the basic elements of the language. The authors predict the Handbook's usefulness for two groups of students in particular. The first group would be those who, while using the Grammar in a classroom setting, need some help in mastering the lesson and doing the exercises. The second group would consist of those who find it necessary to study Hebrew on their own, either for the first time or for review.

Each of the thirty lessons corresponds to the lesson of the same number in the Grammar, and usually contains five sections. "Take Special Note" calls attention to particularly important or difficult aspects of the lesson. "Review the Lesson" reviews the basics. "Check Your Exercises" supplies an answer key to the exercises at the end of a Grammar lesson, so students get immediate feedback. Beginning with Lesson Thirteen of the Handbook, translations are no longer provided, since these can be checked in standard translations. Instead, aspects of the Hebrew text are highlighted, with direction to appropriate parts of the Grammar for review. "You Should Know" reminds students of the essentials of the lesson just listed. "Did You Get It?" offers a few additional drills on material. Four "Practical Helps" are included, to give instruction in areas of particular difficulty ("Beginning Syllable Division," "Root-Finding in Nouns," "Verb Identification," and "Verb Description").

I use Seow's Grammar for a Biblical Hebrew course taught at a Christian seminary - the audience Professor Seow had in mind for his grammar. My sense is that students will welcome the Handbook; although it covers aspects of the Grammar that should be treated adequately in class, most students are more than happy to have review guides (not to mention answer keys). Review guides are particularly welcome when individual chapters of the main text are too long or too dense, an occasional fault of Seow's Grammar (lesson two, for example). I doubt that the Handbook, with its requisite brevity, will prove helpful to students studying Biblical Hebrew on their own, particularly since Seow never intended his Grammar to serve this audience (Seow, Grammar, viii). A text with this audience in mind...