Clear. Understandable. Carefully organized. Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar by Gary D. Pratico and Miles V. Van Pelt is the standard textbook for colleges and seminaries. Since its initial publication in 2001 its integrated approach has helped more than 80,000 students learn Biblical Hebrew.
The third edition of Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar represents a significant updating and revision of the previous edition with the goal of providing students with the best possible tool for learning Biblical Hebrew.
Some of the keys to the effectiveness of Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar in helping students learn is that it:
- Combines the best of inductive and deductive approaches
- Uses actual examples from the Hebrew Old Testament rather than “made-up” illustrations
- Emphasizes the structural pattern of the Hebrew language rather than rote memorization, resulting in a simple, enjoyable, and effective learning process
- Employs colored text that highlights key features of nouns and verbs, allowing easy recognition of new forms
- Includes appendices of verbal paradigms and diagnostics for fast reference and a complete vocabulary glossary
By the time students have worked their way through Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar they will have learned:
- The Hebrew Alphabet
- Vocabulary for words occurring 70 times or more in the Hebrew Bible
- The Hebrew noun system
- The Hebrew verbal system
This product can be used together with the Basics of Biblical Hebrew Workbook, available separately.
Reviews
Praise for the Second Edition:"The Biblical Language Series published by Zondervan is comprehensive and pedagogically cutting edge....If you have a passion to learn Biblical Hebrew and thus enrich your Old Testament studies, here is your starting point!" — Alpha & Omega Ministries
"I have used other Hebrew grammars both personally and in-class. The others, however, do not compare with the well-developed pedagogical system of Gary Pratico and Miles Van Pelt’s Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Workbook. Each lesson is thoughtfully and attractively designed to assist students in the task of learning the essential elements of Biblical Hebrew. Rote memorization is kept to a minimum, while the overall thrust of the grammar is geared toward comprehending the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the language itself. Therefore, the grammar contains information that is absent in the others, which puts the students at a greater advantage in learning to read and interpret the Hebrew of the Old Testament." — John J. Yeo, Reformed Theological Seminary
"Pratico and Van Pelt’s Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar (second edition) combines the didactic presentation of a learning grammar with the systematic organization of a reference grammar, which makes it an ideal textbook for classroom setting. My students learned from it the basics of Biblical Hebrew, and when they went on to do the reading on their own, found it extremely easy and useful to keep referring back to its numbered sections for clarifications. The innovative two-color presentation of the morphological elements vastly facilitates both the teaching and the learning." — Seong Hyun Park, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Gary D. Pratico (ThD, Harvard Divinity School) is senior professor of Old Testament and Hebrew language at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He has been teaching Hebrew for more than thirty years and is coauthor with Miles V. Van Pelt of Basics of Basics of Biblical Hebrew (grammar and workbook) and The Vocabulary Guide to Biblical Hebrew.
Miles Van Pelt (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Alan Belcher Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, where he also serves as Academic Dean. Miles lives in Madison, Mississippi, with his wife, Laurie, and their four children.