Hebrew for Biblical Interpretation.

• Author: Kaye, Alan S.
• Position: Book Review

Hebrew for Biblical Interpretation. By ARTHUR WALKER-JONES. SBL Resources for Biblical Study, vol. 48. Atlanta: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE, 2003, Pp. xviii + 276. $34.95 (paper).

What? Yet another textbook for introductory Biblical Hebrew? The author reveals in the introduction that he has developed a "new (emphasis mine) approach designed to promote better learning outcomes" (p. 1). He rejects grammar-translation pioneered long ago to teach Latin, opining that this teaching methodology is not effective. But then, in an apparent reversal, the author has this to say: "Grammar-translation works against fluency, but has its advantages in biblical studies ..." (p. 4). From my perspective as both a linguist and a teacher of Biblical Hebrew, the pedagogical technique employed does not make too much of a difference, since the target language is dead, and the usual desired result of reading comprehension, accurate translation, and appreciation of the grammatical and lexical intricacies can easily be accomplished with grammar-translation. In other words, most instructors expect their students to become adequate philologists of simple Biblical Hebrew prose after a year of intensive study. This involves the ability to use a dictionary and parse grammatical forms. Since oral proficiency is not a desideratum nor a possibility, unlike in the case of Modern Hebrew, recent advances in applied linguistics are not particularly germane.

The author, who teaches at the University of Winnepeg, developed this work especially for seminary students. I believe they will have a difficult time trying to cope with, e.g., the intricacies of the weak verb and derived stems early on. While I can understand the rationale behind Walker-Jones' decision to introduce the weak verb from the outset (the most commonly occurring verbs are weak), introducing the strong verb [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'write' only on p. 139 is perplexing. Other vocabulary items which introductory students usually learn at the beginning of their studies include words such as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'peace' and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII](h) 'Torah,' which do not appear until p. 158.

Let us now turn to some details:

pp. 9-10: The names of some Hebrew letters of the alphabet use aw to indicate the vowel [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in a traditional pronunciation; e.g., awlef, vawv, sawmech, tsawday. This will surely mislead the learner.

p. 17: The vowel patah is said to be...