Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew.

• Author: Kaye, Alan S.

Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew. Edited by Walter R. Bodine. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1992. Pp. x + 323. $34.50.

This volume consists of sixteen weighty (for the most part) chapters on various linguistic aspects of Biblical (Tiberian) Hebrew. It may be viewed as continuing the excellent linguistic and philological tradition of treatises by Hans Bauer and Pontus Leander, Gotthelf Bergstrasser, Emil Kautzsch and A. E. Cowley (revising Gesenius), Harris Birkeland, Zellig Harris, Joshua Blau, James Barr, Rudolf Meyer, and others (cf. in particular the detailed articles by Revell and Huehnergard). It is also quite abecedarian in that it presents introductory material apt to be known by all linguists and Semitists. The editor, Walter Bodine, is a product of the Harvard linguistic-philological approach to Semitic languages. He studied under Frank Cross, William Moran, Bruce Waltke, and Thomas Fleming, all of whom he calls "philologians [not in my Webster's - what is wrong ;kith philologists?] who were sensitive, to linguistic perspectives" (p. vii).

Bodine emphasizes in the introduction that the purpose of the tome is to "facilitate communication" (p. 2) between linguists and Biblical scholars. He is right, in my estimation, to chastise the field of Biblical studies since, as he puts it, " . . . biblicists often have not seen the difference that linguistic sophistication can make in interpreting literature" (p. 2), and "it will be especially gratifying if these essays stimulate biblical scholars to delve further into general linguistics" (p. 5). But recommending (p. 5) that they be introduced to the field by H. A. Gleason's "older" Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961), or having them read V. Fromkin's and R. Rodman's "pleasurable" Introduction to Language (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1988) will not especially cater to their literary, etymological, and diachronic concerns. A better introductory textbook is Robin Burling's Patterns of Language (San Diego: Academic Press, 1992).

Most of these essays were originally presented to the Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew section of the Society of Biblical Literature from 1983 to 1987. The book was in press for several years. Therefore, the articles would have greatly profited from a postscript of 1991 vintage by the authors (and editor), updating positions and/or bibliographies. This strategy would have enhanced the longevity of these...