Tools for Studying the Biblical Languages

    Anyone who seriously wants to understand the Bible should learn Greek and Hebrew. That's because every translation is also an interpretation. While most modern translations are pretty good, all of them misunderstand some verses here and there. Beyond that, the Greek and Hebrew texts often contain a lot of data that is not reflected in the translations. One of the difference between academic and practical seminaries is that academic seminaries usually require students to learn the languages while practical seminaries usually do not. If you choose to learn Greek and Hebrew, a different question is how much should you learn. Most graduates of academic seminaries don't remember very much Greek or Hebrew ten years after they graduate. What they retain is a fair understanding of how the languages work. That is the most important thing to learn.

ENGLISH TOOLS

A Concordance to the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Books of the Revised Standard Version. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1983. This is a useful book to check how words are used in the Apocrypha.

Young, Robert. Analytical Concordance to the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1964. This is a good quality English concordance that allows students to identify the Hebrew words behind the text.

GERMAN

Manton, J. D. Introduction to Theological German. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1976. This is a brief paperback text book for learning theological German.

Ziefle, Helmut W. Dictionary of Modern Theological German. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1982. This paperback lists some of the most important theological terms used in German religious literature.

GREEK

Aland, Kurt, et al, eds. The Greek New Testament. London: United Bible Society, 1966.

Arndt, William F. and Gingrich, F. Wilbur. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957. This is a detailed Greek dictionary. It is over 900 pages long. Many of us used it as our main dictionary when we learned Greek.

Berry, George Ricker. The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1958.

Brenton, Lancelot C. L. The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986. This is a reprint of a book that was originally published in 1851. It gives both a text of the Septuagint and an English translation in parallel columns.

Chase, Alston Hurd and Phillips, Henry. A New Introduction to Greek. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941. This is a useful text book for students who are learning Greek.

Conybeare, F. C. A. and Stock, St. George. Grammar of Septuagint Greek. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1980. This is a reprint of a book published in 1905. It is a small paperback. It summarizes the grammatical peculiarities of the Greek used in the Septuagint. The differences from New Testament Greek come from the fact that it is Greek used in Egypt three hundred years before the New Testament was written.

Friberg, Barbara and Friberg, Timothy. Analytical Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981. This book goes through the New Testament verse by verse and identifies each word in the text. It's good aid to parsing the verbs.

Gall, James. Layman's English-Greek Concordance. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1975. This concordance takes the opposite approach to Englishman's. It lists English words in the authorized version. Then it subdivides the list for each English word into separate lists for each Greek word that is translated that way. For example, it will list a word like "love." Then below "love," it will list the verses that translate this way the Greek word agapao. Then it will give a second list for the word phileo. Then it will list five other Greek words translated that way.

Greenlee, J. Harold. Scribes, Scrolls & Scripture: A Student's Guide to New Testament Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1985. This small paperback is a great conservative introduction to New Testament textual criticism (i.e. comparing the differences between the readings of different early New Testament Greek manuscripts).

Han, Nathan E. A Parsing Guide to the Greek New Testament. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1971. Han's parsing guide is a classic now for identifying the nature of the verbs in the New Testament. This is important because any Greek verb can be spelled in a hundred different ways depending on how it is uses.

Hanna, Robert. A Grammatical Aid to the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1983. Hanna goes through the New Testament verse by verse and comments on anything a little unusual in the Greek text.

Kittel, Gerhard. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1967. This is a huge ten volume dictionary of Greek words.  It takes up 20" of shelf space. It looks at every word in the New Testament and traces the etymology of the words (ie where they came from) and how the words were used in other Greek writings. Kittel once sold for well over $1,000. Two years ago, I bought a new set for $130. Using etymology to interpret Greek words is not now as popular as it once was. Kittel would be a good tool for doctoral level work. There is also a one volume condensation often called the "little Kittel" which might be of value for masters level work.

Machen, J. Gresham. New Testament Greek for Beginners. Macmillan, 1923. This is one of the standard Greek text books for students who are learning Greek.

Metzger, Bruce M. Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek. Princeton: Published by the author, 1965. This is a word list. It allows students to memorize first the words that are used most often in the Greek text.

Metzger, Bruce Manning. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. Metzger is a useful guide to learn how to evaluate the textual apparatus in the Greek New Testament. The textual apparatus gives the different readings that are found in various ancient manuscripts.

Metzger, Bruce M. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. London: United Bible Societies, 1971. This is a very useful book for using the textual apparatus in a Greek New Testament. It explains why the compilers of the UBS Greek text made their choices among variant readings.

Morrish, George. A Concordance of the Septuagint. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, nd. This is a reprint of a book first published in 1887. It is valuable for finding how a Greek word was used in the LXX. If a Greek word is only used two or three times in the New Testament, it may be helpful to look at how the same word was used in the LXX.

Morrison, Clinton, and Barnes, David H. New Testament Word Lists for Rapid Reading of the Greek Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1966. Word lists are a useful tool when learning Greek or Hebrew. They allow you to memorize first the words that appear most often in the text.

Moulton, Harold K. The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1977. This dictionary lists the forms of  Greek words as they appear in the New Testament text and explains them. This kind of book can  be very useful for students who are beginning to learn Greek. Since both Greek and Hebrew are inflected languages, the verbs can be spelled in a hundred different ways depending on its grammatical usage. Purists claim that this kind of tool should  never be used since students should memorize the grammar. Real people use tools like this a lot.

Nunn, H. P. V. A Short Syntax of New Testament Greek. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973. This brief paperback is a reprint of a book from 1912. It is a brief summary of the grammar of New Testament Greek.

Robertson, A. T. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research. Nashville, TN: Broadman,1934. This is a very long and detailed Greek grammar. It runs over 1,400 pages long.

Swete, Henry Barclay. An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1989. This is a reprint of a book printed in 1914. Around 300 BC, the Old Testament was first translated into Greek. The Greek versions collectively are called the Septuagint which is often abbreviated as the LXX. The name comes from the fact that 70 scholars are supposed to have translated the Old Testament in 70 days. The Greek translation can tell you a lot about how the Old Testament was understood around 300 BC. It can also tell you some things about how the Hebrew text was preserved. So the LXX is very important in the academic world.

Ward, Ronald A. Hidden Meaning in the New Testament: New Light from the Old Greek. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1969. This is a conservative book written at a masters level. It gives many examples from the New Testament of passages where knowing Greek makes a difference in the way that a verse is translated.

Wigram-Green, The New Englishman's Greek Concordance and Lexicon. Christian Copyrights, 1983. This is a reprint and reworking of an old Greek concordance. It lists Greek words, and shows where they are used in an English translation as well as different ways that the word is translated. This version of Englishman's also gives the page number where the Greek words are discussed in Strong's Concordance, Arndt and Gingrich, Kittel's, and Thayer's.

Zerwick, Max and Grosvenor, Mary. A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1981. This book goes through the Greek New Testament verse by verse and makes grammatical observations.

HEBREW AND ARAMAIC

Hebrew-English Lexicon. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970. This is a little book that gives a brief dictionary of the Hebrew words in the Old Testament.

Beall, Todd S. and Banks, William A. Old Testament Parsing Guide. Chicago: Moody, 1986. This two volume set goes through the Old Testament verse by verse. It explains the form of each verb in the text and gives the page in BDB where the verb is discussed. Parsing is important because a Hebrew verb can be spelled in a hundred different ways depending on how it is usedl.

Brotzman, Ellis R. Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1992. Brotzman introduces readers to the problems involved in evaluating differences between early manuscripts of the Old Testament.

Brown, Francis. The New Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon. Christian Copyrights, 1983. This is a reprint of one of the more important 19th century lexicons. This is the most common lexicon used by students as they learn to read Hebrew.

Davidson, A. B. An Introductory Hebrew Grammar. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1916. This is an older text book for learning Biblical Hebrew.

Davidson, Benjamin. The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1967. This is a reprint of an old book. It lists the specific forms in which words appear in the Old Testament and identifies them. Since a Hebrew verb can be spelled in a hundred different ways depending on its grammatical role, this kind of book can be very useful for people who are beginning to read Hebrew. Purists insist that this kind of book should never be used since the grammar should be memorized. Real people use this kind of source a lot.

Green, Jay P. Pocket Interlinear Old Testament. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1987. This is a three volume set that collectively provides an interlinear text of the Hebrew Bible. An Interlinear alternates a line of Hebrew text and the equivalent line of English text. One of the easiest ways to develop a useful knowledge of Hebrew is to read through a Hebrew grammar so that you understand how the language works. Then do all of your misc. Bible reading in the interlinear. That way, the flow of the language sinks into your mind and you memorize Hebrew words in context.

Harris, R. Laird. Introductory Hebrew Grammar. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1950. This is a brief text book for learning Biblical Hebrew.

Holladay, William L. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1988. This is one of the commonly used Hebrew dictionaries.

Johns, Alger F. A Short Grammar of Biblical Aramaic.  Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1963. Aramaic is very similar to Biblical Hebrews. While it was in use at an early time, Aramaic material in the Bible tends to be rather late. Half of the book of Daniel is written in Aramaic, and brief scattered pieces elsewhere.

Mandelkern, Solomon. Veteris Testamenti Concordantiae Hebraicae atque Chaldaicae. Tel Aviv: Schocken, 1978. Mandelkern's concordance is completely in Hebrew with a face page in Latin. It is useful for people working with Hebrew at a masters or doctoral level. It lists words in the exact form that they appear in the text. So if you have a verb that is qal perfect 3rd masc. sing, it will tell you everywhere else in the Old Testament that the same verb occurred in the qal perfect 3rd masc. sing.

McDaniel, Ferris L. A Reader's Hebrew English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Dallas, TX: Published by Ferris L. McDaniel, 1975. This is a short paperback is a brief Hebrew dictionary. It is limited for beginnings because it is an unpointed text.

Owens, John Joseph. Analytical Key to the Old Testament: Genesis. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. This is the first volume in a set of paperbacks that goes through the Old Testament verse by verse and identifies the form of each word. This set was eventually published as a four volume set that covered the whole Old Testament. It was published as Owens, John Joseph. Analytical Key to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1989.

Robinson, Maurice A. Indexes to All Editions of Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon and Thayer's Greek Lexicon. Lafayette, IN: Associated Publishers and Authors, 1981. This small paper back gives the page number in BDB and Thayer's where specific words were discussed.

Stone, Michael E. Rock Inscriptions and Graffiti Project; Catalogue and Inscriptions. Atlanta, GA: Scholars, 1992. This three volume set fills in a blank in traditional dictionaries. It catalogues inscriptions on rocks that were made in many different  time periods and various languages. It is only of limited value for doctoral level work.

Wacholder, Ben Zion, and Abegg, Martin G. A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts from Cave Four. Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992. This set is a good source from fragments from the Qumran scrolls. One limitation in its usefulness for beginners is that the Qumran scrolls were obviously unpointed.

Watts, John D. Lists of Words Occurring Frequently in the Hebrew Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1960. Word lists are important if you want to learn Hebrew. This book lets you memorize first the words that appear the most important in the text.

Weingreen, J. A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959. This is a good quality text book for learning Biblical Hebrew.

Wigram, George V. The Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1980. This is a reprint of a book published in 1843. It  lists Hebrew words instead of English words, and it shows both where they appear in the Bible and how they are translated.

Wonneberger, Reinhard. Understanding BHS: A Manual for the Users of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1984. This brief paperback discusses how to use the textual apparatus (ie the footnotes) in the Stuttgartensia version of the Hebrew Old Testament. Stuttgartensia became the standard Hebrew text shortly before I learned Hebrew. It is published as: A. Alt, et al, eds. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Stuttgart: Deutsche Biblelstiftung, 1967.

UGARITIC AND NON-HEBREW EAST AND WEST SEMITIC

Gibson, J. C. L. Canaanite Myths and Legends. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1977.  This is a very useful book for learning the Ugaritic texts. It gives a transliteration of the Ugaritic Baal myths and a translation in parallel columns. It also includes a brief dictionary in the back of the book.

Huehnergard, John. The Akkadian of Ugarit. Atlanta, GA: Scholars, 1989. Some of the texts found at Ugarit were written in East Semitic (Akkadian) instead of West Semitic (Hebrew, Ugaritic, etc.) This kind of book would only be useful for people working on the texts at a masters or doctoral level.

Segert, Stanislav. A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language with Selected Texts and Glossary. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. This is a useful tool for getting into the Ugaritic language. Ugaritic is the language of the ancient city of Ugarit in Syria. Ugarit was destroyed by the Sea People in 1200 BC. By an 18th Dynasty chronology, that is half way through Israel's period of the judges. By a 19th Dynasty chronology, that would be about the time that Israel appeared in Palestine. Ugaritic sounds like a strange name, but the language is simply a dialect of West Semitic very similar to Biblical Hebrew. It is written in cuneiform characters which is made by pressing wedges into clay tablets. When Ugaritic texts are published, they are usually transliterated into English letters. If you can read Hebrew, it is rather easy to learn the grammatical differences in Ugaritic and to read the texts. Ugaritic is important because most of what we know about Baal worship comes from the religious texts preserved at Ugarit.

Ungnad, Arthur. Akkadian Grammar. Atlanta, GA: Scholars, 1992. This paperback is a brief introduction to East Semitic grammar. This book is intended for people working with the texts at a masters or doctoral level.

Walker, C. B. F. Reading the Past: Cuneiform. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. This is a brief college level introduction to reading cuneiform signs.

BOOKS THAT MAKE EXTENSIVE USE OF THE LANGUAGES

Althann, Robert. A Philological Analysis of Jeremiah 4-6 in the Light of Northwest Semitic. Rome:  Biblical Institute Press, 1983. While note very conservative, this is a useful doctoral level study.

Cathcart, Kevin J. Nahum in the Light of Northwest Semitic. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1973. This is not particularly a conservative book, but it is useful for study at the masters or doctoral level. It looks carefully as parts of the Hebrew text and looks for insights into those passages from the Semitic cognate language.

Cross, Frank M. and Talmon, Shemaryahu, eds. Qumran and the History of the Biblical Text. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975. This is a collection of articles about the implications of the Qumran scrolls for understanding the development of the Biblical text. It is written at a doctoral level. It is not generally conservative, but it is highly informative.

Copyright © 2009 Dr. Rodger Dalman
Last modified: 08/11/09