Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Textbook

Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Textbook. By Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2002. 280 pages.

Dr. deClaissé-Walford has crafted an introductory biblical Hebrew manual that takes a deductive approach to learning the language. In twenty chapters, she lays out the basic grammatical structures of biblical Hebrew. Upon completion of the lessons in this book, students will be able to analyze words and some structures that appear in the Hebrew Bible.

The book contains exercises after most lessons. The sentences in the exercises are not, for the most part, taken directly from the biblical text. They are model sentences using simple biblical Hebrew. There is a helpful answer key in the back. This permits students to check their own work. Most chapters have a section titled "Shortcuts," which provides a summary of the content of the chapter. Hebrew letters are large for easy reading. Unlike most beginning grammars, deClaissé-Walford introduces some of the accent marks that appear frequently in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in the second lesson. From that lesson on, many words appear with accent marks. This has the advantage of helping students to become comfortable with the way the text will appear in BHS. After introducing the alphabet and accent marks, the order of the book is the definite article, prepositions, conjunctions, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numbers, verbs, and particles. Students actually begin reading biblical texts in chapter 19. The chosen text is from the first chapter of the book of Jonah. Following the text are "Helps," which guide the student in analyzing some of the words of the text. An appendix also contains a series of charts summarizing information on verbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns, and numbers. The book ends with a vocabulary list.

This textbook goes against the grain of newer manuals, many of which take a modified inductive approach. In this text, students are primarily analyzing grammatical structures. Students cannot really read Hebrew for quite a while because verbs are introduced last and the list of required vocabulary is short. Actual biblical texts appear only in the last two chapters. One wonders whether students can sustain interest throughout a course when they only get to do what they are most interested in at the very end. On the other hand, students whose learning style is deductive may welcome this approach.

Some of the lessons are really packed, as when all of the verbal conjugations are introduced in one lesson. Students may feel overwhelmed if faculty do not carefully divide the material in such chapters into doable segments. They may also want to add readings of actual biblical texts earlier.

Wilma Ann Bailey

Christian Theological Seminary

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