Beginning Biblical Hebrew (review)

Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 295 Reviews sent a balanced, comprehensive description of linguistic analysis or analyses of Biblical Hebrew. Tamar Zewi University of Haifa Haifa 31905, Israel tzewi@univ.haifa.ac.il BEGINNING BIBLICAL HEBREW. By Mark D. Futato. Pp. xi + 351. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2003. Cloth, $35.00. During the past decade, several teaching grammars have been added to the corpus of existing Biblical Hebrew textbooks (e.g., A. H. Bartelt, Fundamental Biblical Hebrew [St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia, 2002]; M. Z. Brettler, Biblical Hebrew for Students of Modern Israeli Hebrew [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University, 2002]; N. de Claissé-Walford, Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Textbook [St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice Press, 2002]; J. H. Dobson, Learn Biblical Hebrew [Dallas, Tex.: SIL, 1999]; D. A. Garrett, A Modern Grammar for Classical Hebrew [Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 2002]; G. D. Pratico and M. V. Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001]; B. M. Rocine, Learning Biblical Hebrew: A New Approach Using Discourse Analysis [Macon, Ga.: Smyth & Helwys, 2000]; A. P. Ross, Introducing Biblical Hebrew [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 2001]). Mark Futato’s Beginning Biblical Hebrew supplements this inventory with one more introductory text whose stated purpose is to “provide students with a thorough introduction to Biblical Hebrew in an easy-tolearn format” (p. ix), using mainly a deductive approach. The book includes forty lessons; each lesson contains clear and concise comments on grammatical features, and provides explanations that are “not cluttered with jargon” (D. M. Howard, back cover) but exude “extreme simplicity ” (B. K. Waltke, back cover). Futato’s simple technique steers students steadily but gently through the morphological building blocks of the language and introduces them to important elements of syntax in a non-threatening way. The forty lessons are followed by three appendices: 1) a list of userfriendly verbal paradigms highlighted in a pleasant shade of blue; 2) a limited Hebrew-English vocabulary list; and 3) an answer key corresponding to the chapters’ practice drills. Although this answer key will no doubt facilitate the learning task of self-motivated learners, it could also serve as a prop for students whose motivation for academic challenges is limited. Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 296 Reviews Each lesson includes the following three sections: 1) an explanation of new grammatical features; 2) a short vocabulary list; and 3) practice drills. The practice drills appear under the following rubrics: a) “Focusing on new material”; b) “Reviewing previous lessons”; c) “Putting it all together”; and d) “Reading your Hebrew Bible.” This format is consistent throughout the book. Futato introduces students to the verbal system at the beginning of the book (Qal perfect, lesson 6), a helpful feature that enables them to access the biblical text early in their learning of the language. Chapter 6 includes a simple parsing chart with all the basic elements necessary for the morphological analysis of verbs. The word “patterns” used in the parsing chart for what is commonly known as “stems” or “derived conjugations” (e.g., Qal, Niphal), differs from the terminology used in most teaching grammars. Since the word “patterns” is generally used to describe more than verbal forms (e.g., “noun patterns”), its use in this context is somewhat confusing. The term “patterns” should be limited to its traditional usage and should not appear in a parsing chart. Futato treats the Qal stem of strong and weak verbs before the derived conjugations. This order of material is logical since, in the biblical text, weak verbs in the Qal stem occur more frequently than other types of verbs. Some recently published Hebrew grammars introduce the strong verb in all stems before introducing the peculiarities of the weak verbs, an approach that makes the learning of the Hebrew verbal system cumbersome and more challenging than necessary. Lesson 20 includes basic information on the morphological and syntactical features of the Qal infinitives (construct and absolute) together with a userfriendly paradigm for the infinitive construct of weak verbs. The section on the infinitive construct is clear and concise, but the information on the infinitive absolute is weak and includes inconsistencies and inaccurate information. For example, in paragraphs 20.11 and 20.12, Futato presents the Qal infinitive...