Given the comparatively excessive price of reference works and the restricted quantity of sources (time, funds, and vitality) typically accessible to people, it’s important to maximise the worth of each analysis device, whether or not for buy or session. To that finish, the aim of this text is to survey a number of the most outstanding Hebrew Bible/Previous Testomony (HB/OT) lexicons and dictionaries and gauge their overarching effectiveness when it comes to comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usefulness, i.e., to critically consider the “the lexical panorama.”
These primary-language instruments have a tendency to return in two predominant varieties:
- Conventional philological lexicons
- Theological dictionaries
As per widespread parlance, nevertheless, I’ll (kind of) use the phrases “lexicon” and “dictionary” interchangeably all through this text.
This information is for anybody, scholar or scholar, who needs to judiciously make use of the most effective examine supplies accessible. Scores are on a one to 5 scale. A ranking of 1 or two stars signifies a suggestion towards its utilization. A ranking of three stars signifies {that a} useful resource is sweet however not nice. I additionally designate sources in accordance with three classes: layperson, minister (together with Bible school and Christian college/seminary college students), and scholar. Whereas I’ve tried to watch out, it appears finest to be a “shade too trenchant than a very good deal too bland.” Suffice to say, although, we now undergo from an “embarrassment of riches.”
The article begins with lexicons masking Hebrew and Aramaic, essentially the most uncared for of all biblical languages. After this, some non-English based mostly dictionaries will probably be lined. To be clear, these are lexicons which are written in both French, Latin, or German, the three commonest languages required for many research-based terminal diploma packages. The final sections contain theological wordbooks/dictionaries and the quite a few lexical works edited by David J. A. Clines.
Desk of contents
- Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
- Non-English based mostly Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
- Theological lexicons, wordbooks, and dictionaries
- Hebrew-only lexicons edited by David J. A. Clines
Ultimate tabulations
Concluding feedback
1. Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
Frank Matheus, A Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon (GlossaHouse, 2020)
★ | Minister
BHAL is predicated on Frank Matheus’s PONS Kompaktwörterbuch Althebräisch-Deutsch. It makes use of fashionable lexical approaches, presents environment friendly entry to pertinent information in an uncomplicated however complete method, is exceptionally cost-effective, and is extraordinarily clear in its presentation.
With respect to the basics,
- The verbs are cited as roots with out vowels.
- Verb kinds are listed within the standard order from the suffix conjugation (also called the so-called “excellent”) and the prefix conjugation (the so-called “imperfect”) to the participle.
- The nouns are organized (as regular) from standing absolutus within the singular (quotation kind) to standing constructus within the plural, with the grammatical assignments being represented by a quantity, the decision of which might be discovered within the footer on every web page (extra on this later).
As famous by the writer, this not solely saves house but additionally helps to maintain the lexicon “compact and effectively structured.” All ketib/qere variants are listed and are appropriately marked. Matheus additionally explicates:
The listed verbal kinds observe the standard sequence from the third to the primary individual, from the masculine to the female, from the singular to the plural. The third individual singular masculine is adopted by the third female, then the second masculine and female after which the primary individual—then the identical order within the plural. Kinds with enclitic pronouns respective of suffixes are categorised and marked by a small superscript e. The above-mentioned sequence from the third to the primary individual, and many others. additionally applies to them, accordingly. Below quantity 4, the nouns with suffixes are listed within the following order: his e-book, her e-book, your e-book (m. & f.), my e-book; their e-book (m. & f.), your e-book (m. & f.), our e-book; his books, her books, your books (m. & f.), my books; their books (m. & f.) your books (m. & f.), our books. Pausal kinds are solely marked with a p for higher distinguishability when they’re listed instantly subsequent to the identical contextual kind.
By the use of comparability, whereas William L. Holladay’s A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Eerdmans, 1988) is 4 hundred and twenty-seven pages in complete (twenty-nine pages of which cowl Aramaic), BHAL is simply 300 and ninety-eight pages (twenty-five pages for Aramaic). One must also be aware that BHAL has considerably bigger headings for every predominant entry (aleph, guess, and many others.) and accommodates way more white house than Holladay. The overall content material, subsequently, is considerably much less per entry in BHAL than in Holladay.
Along with this, one other irritant is the egregious undeniable fact that BHAL doesn’t leverage daring face sort for the precise definition of every phrase (not like Holladay). This makes looking via the lexicon itself a considerably cumbersome and unnecessarily dense process, at occasions. One does be aware, although, that every one (undisputed) incidents are recorded in BHAL through the open dot signal (⁰).
The definitions themselves are, as an entire, fairly clear (although considerably lackluster). Disappointingly, nevertheless, not like Holladay who makes use of the complete phrases for every of the Aramaic stems, e.g., Peal, Hitpeel, Hafel, and many others., BHAL solely makes use of abbreviations. As well as, not like Holladay, Hebrew cognates for any given phrase should not included within the definition. Which means that college students seeking to study biblical Aramaic through the comparative technique are at a (extreme) drawback utilizing BHAL.
In sum, whereas Frank Matheus’s A Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon is an up-to-date device that would, maybe, complement (at the very least in sure methods) Holladay’s trusted work, one can be hard-pressed to steer me that it considerably improves on (not to mention supplants) that textual content. In reality, I might argue that, given the selection, one can be silly to not go for Holladay.
Benjamin Davidson, The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Hendrickson Educational, 1981)
★ | Minister, Scholar
By providing beneficiant parsing particulars for Hebrew and Aramaic lexemes, this e-book bridges the hole between “effort and outcomes,” thereby facilitating better studying fluency. Stated in any other case, as a substitute of instructing the basics of Hebrew grammar, this work equips customers with the “means of creating speedy and positive after progress,” releasing them from the “tedium and disappointment of uncertainty” of their analytic research.
Whereas as soon as invaluable (although simply misused), it’s now out of date in gentle of fashionable Bible software program, which exponentially will increase productiveness and gives searches of “intoxicating complexity” in a “fraction of a second.”
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Clarendon, 1977)
★★ | Scholar
BDB is predicated on the sooner work of Wilhelm Gesenius (extra on this later) and Edward Robinson. Its function is to “set up the ‘correct meanings’ of Hebrew [and Aramaic] phrases in gentle of their ‘extra-Biblical historical past and relationship’ and ‘cognate languages.’”
As is thought amongst most specialists, the linguistic (philological) materials contained inside BDB is “sorely” out-of-date. One acknowledges, as an illustration, how the examine of Akkadian was nonetheless in its infancy at the moment. This isn’t to say the invention of Ugarit (1928–1929), and, in fact, the necessary position of the Useless Sea Scrolls usually (1947–1956). Equally, Paul D. Wegner (astutely) notes:
A lot of the proof cited from Arabic or South Arabic is doubtful, since it’s now generally acknowledged that Arabic is a Southwest Semitic language and that Hebrew and Aramaic are Northwest Semitic languages. Thus comparable phrases present in Arabic could probably not correspond to Hebrew and Aramaic phrases which will appear like cognates. BDB shouldn’t be used to find out a phrase’s etymology; in actual fact, critical errors have occurred by these unaware of this drawback.
One other problematic part of BDB is its association by “root.” Pedagogically, this impediment is successfully overcome via expertise and Bruce Einspahr’s Index to Brown-Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Moody, 1977). Linguistically, nevertheless, the so-called “root fallacy” stays a perpetual plague to each the scholarly and the uninitiated alike. One wonders what BDB’s revisions may present and the way the editors may overcome this.
William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Brill, 2000)
★★★ | Minister, Scholar
As famous above, there’s a dearth of up-to-date, user-friendly, and cheap lexicons masking Hebrew and Aramaic. This one—simply—is the most effective. Although little greater than one-third the majority of the Brown-Driver-Briggs or the bigger Koehler-Baumgartner lexicons, it contains every part {that a} non-advanced First Testomony reader wants.
The lexicon leverages daring face sort for phrase definitions and, not like BHAL, accommodates clear and efficient mark(s) for hapax legomenon vis à vis the dagger signal (†). One additionally notes that, not like another lexicons, each type of the phrase is listed within the entry. For many who should not as up-to-speed on their paradigms and are left scratching their heads over these “tough” types of the yiqtol or qatal, as an illustration, or the dreaded “discover the verb” workouts, that is useful.
J. A. Emerton lucidly states, Holladay additionally
offers references to, and lots of quotations from, consultant Previous Testomony passages wherein they’re discovered. His work thus avoids a critical weak point from which brief lexicons generally undergo, for they have an inclination to checklist the principal meanings of phrases however [tend] to supply inadequate assist to the reader in studying how they’re utilized in specific contexts within the Previous Testomony.
I heartily concur with Emerton’s evaluation.
Jonathan Gibson and Bryce Simon, An Interpretive Lexicon of Previous Testomony Hebrew and Aramaic: Evaluation of Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interjections, Particles, Prepositions, and Pronouns (Zondervan, 2024)
★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
This interpretive lexicon is compiled to supply customers with a “one-stop information” for the “syntactic perform and semantic vary” of the aforementioned essential parts of Hebrew grammar. That’s, the Interpretive Lexicon
gives a taxonomy of synaptic capabilities for key phrases throughout the principle Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons and grammars. All entries are given web page numbers and part references in order that they are often conveniently researched in print and digital codecs. Functioning each as a lexicon and an interpretive handbook, this useful resource helps the consumer shortly and simply decide the vary of translation prospects for a wide range of Hebrew and Aramaic phrases. It additionally serves to assist the reader of the Previous Testomony Scriptures transfer past a gloss translation to cautious interpretation culminating in a extra correct (re)translation.
A two-page glossary of definitions masking elements of speech, such because the which means of “particle” or “gerund,” for instance, is useful, as is the four-page enumeration of varied grammatical-functional subcategories, like “ablative,” “comitative,” “pleonastic,” “proclitic,” and “syndesis.”
A Hebrew lexeme that appears to have been unintentionally neglected is “all” (כל). This indefinite pronoun (with a quantifying perform) typically carries the sense or nuance of “totality.” Likewise, מכל, “from all,” a time period of appreciable theological import in Genesis, can be absent.
At occasions, one will get pissed off with the truth that the Interpretive Lexicon is “merely” a compendium. That’s, there may be little to no steering for interpretive prospects. As an alternative, the editors defer this to the grammars. On this method, I might, maybe, have discovered extra worth if somebody had up to date Robert D. Chisholm’s From Exegesis to Exposition: A Sensible Information to Utilizing Biblical Hebrew (Baker, 1999) as a substitute or Williams’ Hebrew Syntax, because it (kind of) does most of the identical issues because the Interpretive Lexicon however has the added bonus of offering ample textual examples.
One other minor level of criticism of the Interpretive Lexicon entails Gibson and Simon’s dealing with of waw. To be clear, “the seemingly countless capabilities of waw are literally not a lot capabilities of waw alone however of the bigger clausal and supra-clausal buildings of which waw is part.”
The altogether lack of indices (particularly Scripture) can be unlucky, as not a couple of customers are more likely to take advantage of use of this lexicon whereas working via particular (syntax) points from Scripture. Maybe a reprinting or revision of the quantity may assist treatment this infelicity.
Although some could quibble that J. C. L. Gibson’s Davidson’s Introductory Hebrew Grammar~Syntax, 4th ed. (T&T Clark, 1994) and Russel T. Fuller and Kyoungwon Choi’s Invitation to Biblical Hebrew Syntax: An Intermediate Grammar (Kregel, 2017) fail to seem throughout the Hebrew sources famous, nothing of substance (for my part) is misplaced. On the Aramaic facet, nevertheless, I’m uncertain as to why solely Cook dinner and Rosenthal are cited. Luckily, Scott N. Callaham’s Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters: A Parallel Hebrew-Aramaic Handbook (GlossaHouse, 2021) cures this drawback, as it’s the solely reference that’s “keyed” to the principle Aramaic grammars (very similar to Williams does for Hebrew).
To shut, as Andrew G. Shead maintains throughout the endorsements part of the quantity:
Right here, then, is a compendium that belongs in each critical biblical research library. It guarantees numerous hours of saved labor for college kids of Hebrew/Aramaic Scriptures, and a cautious curation of scholarly opinion that can empower exegetes to make knowledgeable decisions.
Extremely really useful!
An Interpretive Lexicon of Previous Testomony Hebrew and Aramaic: Evaluation of Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interjections, Particles, Prepositions, and Pronouns
Robert R. Duke, Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Dictionary (Zondervan, 2024)
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
BHAD is exclusive amongst all different lexicons for a wide range of causes. For one, Duke alone gives each the English and Hebrew names for the biblical books, exposes college students to texts in each Paleo- and common Hebrew script, and offers the complete checklist of types of the entry.
Duke’s quantity, although, doesn’t intend to interchange any of the usual Hebrew lexicons. Because the writer himself states:
This dictionary is trying to bridge a spot for intermediate college students who know primary Hebrew grammar and vocabulary however discover customary lexicons, like The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB) or The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (HALOT) to dense for simple entry. Whereas BDB and HALOT embrace useful and important reference information, the mid-level language scholar can really feel overwhelmed and lose a number of the preliminary ardour that they had for the Hebrew language. Thus, the objective has been to create a useful resource that simplifies with out falsifying the info.
Duke goes on to say:
Since having the unique idea and pouring [sic] over present sources to finish this challenge, I’ve seen myself as a curator. Similar to in museums, a curator wants to pick out one of the best ways to current content material to inform a narrative. My curatorial exercise has targeted on serving to college students see the variety within the methods Hebrew and Aramaic phrases exist within the Bible. The ultimate product gives a fast reference device that continues to attract them down the trail to mastery.
The challenge itself was guided by 5 rules:
- Embody all Hebrew phrases that seem ten or extra occasions, in addition to all Aramaic verbs and non-verbs that happen 5 or extra occasions.
- Checklist verbs by the primary letter of the “excellent” third masculine singular (3ms) kind, slightly than by the foundation.
- Design a user-friendly structure to simplify finding the precise kinds discovered within the biblical textual content.
- Incorporate materials in Paleo-Hebrew and unpointed texts from the Useless Sea Scrolls (a few of that are biblical quotes as preserved in Qumran).
- Present complete indices to assist find phrases extra readily identified by their root.
One notes that the Hebrew and Aramaic entries should not separated into two distinct sections, thus serving to college students see the similarities and variations when cognate entries are subsequent to one another. Nonetheless, the Aramaic sections are differentiated by grey textual content.
For verbs, simply the best problem for a piece valuing “ease of use,” the order of fabric offered underneath every verbal entry is as follows:
- infinitive assemble (infinite absolute) | suffixed kinds
- perfects | suffixed kinds
- imperfects | suffixed kinds
- participles (assemble kind) | suffixed kinds | passive participles | suffixed kinds
- imperatives | suffixed kinds
Regarding nouns, entries are organized:
- plural (together with twin kinds)
- assemble singular: suffixed kinds
- assemble plural: suffixed kinds
With respect to adjectives:
- (1) ms | fs | mp | fp
- (2) suffixed kinds
Individuals will discover alternative ways to make use of this dictionary successfully.
- BHAD might be consulted alongside the biblical textual content to make clear unfamiliar phrases. Whereas not exhaustive (nor meant to be), it gives sufficient vocabulary to cowl nearly all of biblical passages.
- The Hebrew and Aramaic examples can be utilized for self-testing. Instructors, as an illustration, may assign particular sections for quizzes or exams.
- BHAD is right for normal vocabulary assessment, particularly for Paleo-Hebrew and unpointed texts (a sensible strategy could be reviewing one letter per day over a month to refresh forgotten phrases). Constructing confidence with extrabiblical materials from Iron Age inscriptions, Qumran texts, and the Elephantine papyri, for instance, will finally permit readers to have interaction extra deeply with these fascinating corpora, enriching not solely their understanding of Scripture itself but additionally its broader context.
Miles V. Van Pelt places it effectively in saying that any useful resource serving to advance the biblical languages “is to be welcomed by each instructors and college students. The extrabiblical Hebrew citations … will set this useful resource other than different introductory and intermediate instruments.”
Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, eds., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Brill, 2000)
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
As indicated inside its preface, HALOT seeks to “render precisely in fashionable language the which means of the Hebrew phrases” by contemplating the “most necessary a part of linguistics … the comparability of languages.”
In evaluating HALOT, one notes that it advantages from the numerous developments in Semitic linguistics over the past century. This work attracts from Hebrew texts from the Useless Sea area and different cognate Semitic languages to find out the meanings of uncommon Hebrew phrases.
Phrases are organized alphabetically, addressing a significant limitation of BDB. The primary 4 volumes of the unique printing cowl Hebrew vocabulary. The fifth focuses on Aramaic.
There are two predominant drawbacks:
- The work is comparatively expensive (one can, although, save a ton at SBL if one has the baggage capability!).
- Except one owns it in Logos(!), it’s cumbersome to make use of, as readers should regularly change between volumes.
The unabridged two-volume examine version alleviates a few of these points. Luckily, the two-volume version matches the web page numbers of the five-volume set.
To conclude, as Benjamin J. Noonan maintains:
HALOT’s alphabetical association of phrases offers it a definite benefit over BBD when it comes to ease of use. Its up to date etymological information, introduced in transliterated kind slightly than its authentic script, can be a major power. Nevertheless, its etymological information just isn’t with out weak point. HALOT accommodates a variety of questionable etymologies and comparisons, significantly with respect to Arabic, that generally overshadow semantic and syntactic proof from the biblical textual content itself. Lastly, like BDB, HALOT suffers from use of glosses slightly than definitions.
Irrespective of those infelicities, HALOT two-volume examine version stays the most effective multi-volume lexicon of Hebrew-Aramaic. Interval. It ought to be consulted by all critical non secular college students. As Richard S. Hess states, “KB stays the lexicon of alternative and this cheaper version is a welcome function.”
2. Non-English based mostly Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
Philippe Reymond, Dictionnaire D’Hebreu Et D’Arameen Bibliques (Société Biblique Française, 1998)
★★★ | Minister, Scholar
Parlez-vous français? Oui ou non? Uniquely, Canada stands aside as a bilingual nation with French and English as its two official languages. Given such, I’ve had the privilege of getting not a couple of Francophone college students in my Hebrew grammar class(es).
For these seeking to leverage (theological) French alongside their biblical Hebrew (and Aramaic) abilities, this lexicon is taken into account to be the crème de la crème, because it leverages clear symbols for “sure,” “approximate,” and “disputed” translation values and is modestly priced. Daniel Bourget succinctly places it: “Quand on me demande quel est aujourd’hui le meilleur dictionnaire hébreu-français, je ne réponds qu’après un temps d’hésitation.” Now to attend for extra publishers to see the worth of French, as they’ve completed for Latin and German!
Franz S. J. Zorell, ed., Lexicon Hebraicum et Aramaicum Veteris Testamenti (Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1952)
★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
As alluded to above, there appears to be an uptick within the availability of primary sources for learners of ecclesiastical Latin. For college students of the First Testomony, nevertheless, there isn’t a higher cease than Zorrell. As Mark D. Futato Sr. advised me, “I taught myself Latin in grad faculty simply so I may use Zorrell.” Hildrup concludes, “many a era of ecclesiastical college students of Hebrew [and Aramaic] will notice their indebtedness to its realized and industrious authors.” Frederick W. Danker additionally describes this work as being “past query a noteworthy achievement, and to be blessed for, amongst different issues, Zorell’s therapy of ben Sira’s Hebrew diction.” Danker explains,
The Aramaic therapy initially deliberate for this lexicon was shifted to a extra complete consideration of Aramaic utilization. Lexicon linguae aramaicae Veteris Testamenti documentis antiquis illustratum, ed. E. Vogt (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1971). After this modification in plan, Zorell’s work bore the title Lexicon Hebraicum Veteris Testamenti, and the ending touches have been accomplished in 1984.
It’s organized in two columns with an efficient use of spacing and symbols. One notes that every one correct names are befittingly transcribed as within the Vulgate.
Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testomony, ed. Herbert Donner et al. (Springer Verlag, 2013)
★★★★★ | Scholar
G. Geoffrey Harper poignantly writes, “‘Do I [really] have to study German?’ The look within the scholar’s eye betrays the reply they hope to listen to. Growing a capability to work together with German literature is a frightening, but typically required, process for [many] anglophone doctoral college students.” Regardless of the not-insignificant challenges concerned, nevertheless, there may be good motive for each tutorial to hunt to grow to be more and more intimate and extra conversant in German scholasticism in toto. For these diligently engaged in Hebrew Bible/Previous Testomony (HB/OT) research, this entails successfully leveraging Gesenius18.
Rightly understood as a “pioneer” within the examine of Hebrew grammar and lexicography, the fabric of Wilhem Gesenius (1786–1842) nonetheless serves because the traditional, customary reference materials. For the sake of readability, the seventeenth version of Gesenius was initially printed in 1915. The eighteenth version of Gesenius took nearly thirty years of publication.
Herbert Donner, the chief editor, outlines six guiding rules upheld throughout the eighteenth version of this lexicon:
- Complete inclusion of all types of every phrase showing within the Hebrew Previous Testomony, as introduced throughout the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.
- Contextual readability for phrases, making multi-word Hebrew constructions comprehensible.
- Constrained engagement with historic and stylistic inquiries.
- Selective inclusion of and/or reference(s) to text-critical points.
- Thorough inclusion of correct names (together with individuals and locations).
- The incorporation of all related info on historical Close to East (ANE) historical past.
One notes that the editors have deliberately restricted the lexicon’s scope to exclude all phrases not discovered within the HB/OT.
Jacob Corzine’s feedback are price noting in full:
Gesenius 18 is structured in another way than BDB. The phrases should not grouped alphabetically in accordance with their root phrase, however slightly organized strictly alphabetically. Compared with BDB or Gesenius 17, the brand new quantity is extra comfy to make use of, as apparent progress in e-book publishing reveals itself over a close to one-hundred 12 months hole. The totally different sections inside a person entry are a lot simpler to establish, and the textual content is mostly simpler to scan trying to find kinds … since Gesenius lists most (now: all) types of a phrase that seem within the Previous Testomony.
In sum, there isn’t a different one-volume lexicon that gives the identical wealth of element. Interval.
3. Theological lexicons, wordbooks, and dictionaries
Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, eds. Theological Lexicon of the Previous Testomony, trans. Mark E. Biddle, 3 vols. (Hendrickson, 1997)
★★★ | Layperson, Minister, Scholar
TLOT is an exceptionally user-friendly set of volumes, as soon as printed in German as Theologisches Handwörterbuch zum Alten Testomony (THAT).
There’s a lot to commend regarding TLOT. First, along with conventional philological inquiry (see footnote two above), particular consideration was dedicated to linguistics whereas remaining keenly conscious of quite a few pitfalls—hooray! The editors state, “It’s not attainable on the premise of phrase examine alone to assemble a theology. Cf. James Barr, Semantics of Biblical Language (SCM, 1983).
Second, TLOT boasts a formidable cross-reference system, being “keyed” to BDB and HALOT —to not point out NIDOTTE, TDNT/TDOT, and TWOT (see beneath for extra particulars on this). Earlier than the digital age, this function alone made TLOT significantly invaluable for a lot of people. Following the Hold It Easy, Silly (KISS) precept, TLOT was deliberately designed to assist theologians and pastors with “minimal data of Hebrew and OT research” higher perceive and preach from the First Testomony; therefore, its accessibility is S-tier.
To critique, lexicography has superior considerably since these volumes have been printed (significantly the German originals). Additionally, technologically talking, Bible software program packages have made most of the distinguishing options of TLOT far much less necessary than they was once.
Gleason Archer Jr., R. Laird Harris, and Bruce Okay. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Previous Testomony, single vol. ed. (Moody, 2003)
★★★★ | Layperson, Minister, Scholar
This work boasts 1,400 articles written by forty-three top-rate students, plus some 4 hundred sub-entries giving definitions solely.
The brand new version of this not-insignificant reference work combines the unique two volumes (Moody: 1980) into one. The editors duly acknowledge a sensitivity to “exegetical fallacies,” stating,
Phrase examine doesn’t result in a complete understanding of the Previous Testomony textual content—or any textual content. Phrases should all the time be taken in context. They’ve a variety of which means, thus ’āmar could generally imply ‘communicate,’ generally ‘command.’ Thus, it overlaps with dābar on the one hand and ṣāwâ on the opposite. Additionally, the etymologies of phrases should not all the time determinate of meanings … Biblical utilization is subsequently the most effective criterion of the which means of a phrase, and to that finish our authors have depended closely on their concordances.
That mentioned, it is usually price noting that TWOT deliberately arranges phrases underneath roots, i.e., “the verbal root and the derived phrases are mentioned collectively. However all of the derivatives are additionally listed of their correct alphabetical place with a … numerical cross reference to guide the consumer to the foundation verb the place, whether it is theologically necessary, a dialogue of the which means of the foundation verb and all its derivatives will probably be discovered.” Customers must verify for themselves the professionals and cons of this.
Whereas there may be an Aramaic part (not like TLOT, by the use of instance), it barely warrants point out as not a couple of occasions the entry is merely, “Utilization much like Hebrew.” That mentioned, there are some occasional gems to be discovered and a few refreshing reminders about Aramaic grammar. The perfect entries are these signed by Charles D. Isbell, similar to ‘bā’û” (petition, request), ’aḥăwāyâ (declaration, interpretation), ‘ddān (time, interval, span, 12 months, period), and ‘ăbad (make, do, carry out, create [Peal]; be made, be completed, be carried out, executed/carried out [Hithpeal]).
Broadly talking, TWOT could be thought-about by some people to be extra readable and “evangelical pleasant” in its strategy to Scripture, as in comparison with TLOT.
Willem A. VanGemeren, ed., New Worldwide Dictionary of Previous Testomony Theology and Exegesis, 5 vols. (Zondervan, 1997)
★★★★★ | Layperson, Minister, Scholar
NIDOTTE accommodates greater than three thousand articles written by greater than 200 students from twenty-four nations and over 100 tutorial establishments. NIDOTTE is an indispensable useful resource and a useful addition to any biblical scholar’s assortment—warranting common reference and session.
NIDOTTE has 4 predominant elements:
- A information (vol. 1a)
- The dictionary correct; which is clearly the center of NIDOTTE, its raison d’être (vols. 1b–4a)
- A topical index (vol. 4b)
- Indices (vol. 5)
“The Information to Previous Testomony Theology and Exegesis,” which can be accessible as a separate paperback quantity (Zondervan, 1999), is comprised of a number of articles spanning a variety of subjects to assist orient oneself to the duty at hand.
- Within the Introduction, Vanhoozer discusses hermeneutics
- Half I handles textual criticism (Waltke)
- Half II covers Previous Testomony historical past (Merrill and Lengthy)
- Half III explores literary approaches (Longman) and narrative criticism (Satterthwaite)
- Half IV gives a theoretical strategy to linguistics (Cotterell), adopted by Walton’s “Ideas for Productive Phrase Examine”
- In Half V, Martens and Schultz cowl varied elements of Previous Testomony theology
- Lastly, throughout the conclusion, VanGemeren illustrates find out how to use NIDOTTE extra exactly via the efficient examples of Ruth 1 and Psalm 119:1–8
For the sake of readability, the topical dictionary delineates the theology of every e-book of the Previous Testomony, historic epochs (e.g., Kingdom of Judah, exile, intertestamental interval), individuals and locations (geography) of the HB/OT, extrabiblical literature (e.g., apocrypha and pseudepigrapha), and sure key ideas, similar to, for instance, “Retribution.” As famous above, the fifth quantity (indices) is especially useful because it opens up better entry to cruising the dictionary. A very powerful of those, maybe, is the Index of Semantic Fields, since NIDOTTE is the one lexicon accessible in print (that I’m conscious of) that arranges lexemes into “buckets of which means,” thereby eliminating many exegetical fallacies.
That mentioned, neither TLOT, TWOT, nor NIDOTTE does this completely. Benjamin J. Noonan relates:
Every of those initiatives started after Barr’s critique of theological dictionaries. Subsequently, they exhibit at the very least some consciousness of the pitfalls inherent to offering a theological dictionary … General TDOT, TLOT, and NIDOTTE preserve a distinction between phrase and idea. Nevertheless, they don’t all the time achieve this efficiently, partly as a result of their construction inherently associates particular ideas with every phrase set, slightly than the opposite method round. On the identical time, as a result of phrases are finally not separable kind ideas, and since we as interpreters lack encyclopedic data of historical Israel attributable to our historic and cultural distance, theological dictionaries stay helpful repositories of information.
Simply as Silva edited the NIDNTTE, one can solely hope for a brand new, second version of NIDOTTE.
New Worldwide Dictionary of Previous Testomony Theology and Exegesis | NIDOTTE (5 vols.)
G. Johannes Botterweck et al., eds., Theological Dictionary of the Previous Testomony, 17 vols. (Eerdmans, 1977–2021)
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
The TDOT gives practically exhaustive analysis and evaluation of just about each lexeme and phrase group throughout the entirety of the HB/OT. As Robert B. Chisholm Jr. emphasizes in his assessment of quantity 15: “This quantity, like different volumes on this collection, will probably be a useful useful resource for biblical exegetes and theologians.”
Quantity 16 (2018), authored by Holger Gzella, covers Aramaic, whereas quantity 17 (2021) is devoted solely to indices. This quantity tabulates the entries for over a thousand phrases masking 4 thousand pages throughout sixteen books printed over a interval of forty-five years. Whew!
There’s little else so as to add regarding TDOT that hasn’t already been lined above. So on the danger of belaboring the purpose relating to the constraints of theological dictionaries, usually, it’s price quoting Benjamin J. Noonan (as soon as once more), who makes clear:
Though every challenge claims to supply a dictionary based mostly on semantic fields, none absolutely delivers. NIDOTTE comes the closest to doing so in that it gives an index of semantic fields. Nonetheless, in every challenge semantic fields should not effectively outlined, nor are they based mostly on any clear standards. Moreover, entries don’t all the time pay enough consideration to synonyms and antonyms. Right here particularly there stays vital room for development, and hopefully future theological dictionaries will give better consideration to this space.
Theological Dictionary of the Previous Testomony and New Testomony Assortment | TDOT/TDNT (27 vols.)
4. Hebrew-only lexicons edited by David J. A. Clines
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (9 vols.); The Concise Lexicon of Classical Hebrew; and The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew: Revised
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
Professor David J. A. Clines handed away on the age of eighty-four (1938–2022). As famous by Stanley E. Porter, whereas “David made a sustained contribution to biblical research over the course of over 5 a long time … I believe that David’s most important contribution was arguably the position that he performed in founding and serving as director/writer of JSOT Press/Sheffield Educational Press after which Sheffield Phoenix Press.” Porter goes on to remark,
I believe that the dictionary was solely attainable due to Clines’s angle towards scholarly publishing as exemplified by each JSOT/SAP and SPP. His being writer of these presses was in all probability what enabled the dictionary (in a number of volumes printed over thirty years!) to return into existence.
Statistically talking, the outcomes of Clines’s lexical labors are staggering! To be clear:
DCH is the primary ever lexicon printed of the traditional Hebrew language as an entire; earlier dictionaries have restricted themselves to the proof of the Hebrew Bible, ignoring the Hebrew of the Useless Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) and the traditional Hebrew inscriptions. Each incidence of each phrase (other than a number of the commonest particles) is cited in extremely analytical articles. A pervasive theme of the Dictionary is its focus on the meanings of phrases in context: for all nouns, for instance, the verbs of which they’re the topic or object are famous, and for all verbs, the nouns which are their topics or objects. Two additional revolutionary options of the Dictionary are its intensive bibliographies and its incorporation of greater than 3500 phrases not beforehand recorded in Hebrew dictionaries. Along with the complete dictionary, a one-volume model of the Dictionary was printed in 2009. All that is additionally accessible electronically as a module in two Bible software program packages, Accordance and Logos.
The following nine-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Revised (2018–25) continues apace to be ready for print and software program format subject, and as soon as printed in entirety will probably be 25% longer at 5 million phrases, with 100,000 enhancements and an additional 2,800 phrases in comparison with the unique dictionary. This will probably be accompanied by The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised … with 1 million phrases, and the extra compact Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (forthcoming 2025).
Two issues should be made clear previous to elaborating on extra of the particulars of those particular lexicons. First, very similar to BDB and HALOT, the DCH and the CDCH leverage glosses slightly than definitions for every entry. Noonan’s phrases regarding this are price quoting in full:
Glosses indicate one-to-one correspondence between the Biblical Hebrew … phrase and the trendy gloss. This may be deceptive when their meanings don’t match up totally. It doesn’t, moreover, line up with present lexicographic follow. Particularly when the dictionary consumer is unaware of the cultural world of the supply language, lexicographers advocate giving an explanatory equal … The problem right here is to know the way a lot description is critical—and sensible—for the consumer. Nonetheless, biblical lexicographers would do effectively to include definitions with at the very least some encyclopedic data into their lexicons.
It’s price noting, subsequently, that The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) is alleged to typically current an “prolonged definition” and that the articles on “vegetation and animals … in addition to individuals and place names” are mentioned by the editors to explicitly provide “encyclopedic info.”
Second, it must be made clear that, not like BDB and HALOT, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised deliberately excludes etymological information. Clines explicitly states:
Cognates in different Semitic languages haven’t usually been listed on this Dictionary. Such info has grow to be conventional in Hebrew lexica of the final two centuries, however its presence in a Hebrew dictionary is sort of problematic, and it’s tough to see what function it serves. Theoretically talking, that’s, information concerning the which means of cognate phrases in Akkadian and Arabic, for instance, are strictly irrelevant to the Hebrew language; and, virtually talking, there may be proof that the importance of the cognates has been systematically misunderstood by many customers of the normal dictionaries.
As famous by reviewers, this function isn’t (if ever) appreciated amongst most customers of Clines. Benjamin Noonan (likewise) avers:
It’s true that etymological information is usually solely included in diachronic … dictionaries, which Hebrew Bible lexicons should not. It’s also true that biblical lexicographers have regularly misused etymological information, as BDB and even the current HALOT show. Nevertheless … the Hebrew Bible’s many uncommon phrases require the usage of etymology, and abuse doesn’t preclude correct use.
Noonan continues to argue:
Moreover, etymology is useful for distinguishing homonyms … and together with etymological information facilitates the comparative technique for the Semitic language. It could subsequently be rash to exclude etymological information altogether. Nonetheless, there may be room for debate on how finest to incorporate such information.
Statistically talking, it’s prudent of Noonan to focus on the rarity of phrases throughout the HB/OT and their distinctive relationship to cognate languages. That is particularly poignant given how Akkadian is the earliest attested Semitic language and that no different Semitic language—apart from Eblaite—shares vocabulary with Akkadian as intently as Hebrew does, with 53 % of Akkadian phrases having Hebrew cognates. As Gordon P. Hugenberger and Nancy L. Erickson preserve, this shut relationship has “confirmed indispensable for illuminating meanings and definitions of Hebrew phrases.” On this method, “Akkadian is, arguably, a very powerful language for a greater understanding of the Previous Testomony apart from the biblical languages themselves.”
Such issues however, Clines’s exclusion of cognate phrase(s) is legitimate. He states:
It’s typically mentioned, for instance, that the perform of noting the cognates is to point how it’s that we all know the which means of the Hebrew phrase to be such and such; however that is incorrect, since there may be often a fairly complicated set of evidences for such issues, starting from inner consistency throughout the Hebrew texts to the testimony of historical variations and to Jewish lexicographical and exegetical custom; and there’s no motive to privilege the actual sort of proof, problematic as it’s, that’s offered by the cognate languages. We’ve got not, in actual fact, taken it as a normal requirement of our process to justify the meanings we suggest for the Hebrew phrases (nevertheless fascinating such an endeavor could also be); that’s too complicated a process to be completed throughout the confines of a dictionary.
In short, although some could quibble, Clines’s strikes the correct steadiness inside DCHR. That’s:
When a cognate in one other language has been adduced in help of a proposed new phrase, that cognate is talked about within the bibliographic entry after the gloss … On the identical precept, a Biblical Hebrew (BH) phrase supporting a newly proposed phrase has the same entry … Cognates in different languages haven’t been famous in The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised correct, although loanwords have been; however not within the specific case of latest phrases we predict it useful, and certainly essential, to supply the proof.
Some extra options and traits:
- Not like BDB and HALOT, for instance, DCHR additionally contains an exceptionally thorough users-guide. Although not as complete in nature as NIDOTTE, Clines’s introduction gives every part readers require to be successfully oriented to the textual content.
- Particularly useful are the separate bibliographies for every letter (and lexeme) on the finish of every quantity and the statistical info offered.
- Not like all different lexica (at the very least that I’m conscious of), the DCHR reveals for every phrase “within the 4 corpora of Classical Hebrew (Hebrew Bible, Ben Sira, the Useless Sea Scrolls and the Inscriptions) the variety of occurrences; and within the case of verbs, incidence statistics are additionally given for every of its voice (binyanim).
- DCHR has an English-Hebrew index, lists synonyms, antonyms, syntagmatic relations, and judiciously organizes phrases into semantic fields for a nuanced understanding. There are 354 semantic fields (following that of Reinier de Blois’s SDBH famous above).
DCHR is (past doubt) the most effective multi-volume print lexicon of the Hebrew language. Interval.
Ultimate tabulations
To observe is every of the principle lexical sources listed above—with their rankings.
Greatest sources for laypersons
- NIDOTTE
- Think about Lee M. Fields, Hebrew for the Remainder of Us, 2nd ed. (Zondervan, 2023)
Greatest useful resource for ministers and college students
- HALOT
- NIDOTTE & TDOT
- DCH & DCHR
- BHAD
Greatest print sources for students
- HALOT
- Gesenius18
- NIDOTTE & TDOT
- DCH & DCHR
- Vogt (Aramaic)
As famous originally of this text, we undergo from a humiliation of riches relating to Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons. In fact, in addition to the instruments listed above, vocabulary builders, chrestomathies, and (maybe particularly) grammars can all advance the effectiveness of 1’s examine of the authentic languages. When mixed with the huge array of sources accessible for the examine of the New Testomony and the Septuagint (LXX), usually, there may be a lot trigger to rejoice.
Associated articles
Given the comparatively excessive price of reference works and the restricted quantity of sources (time, funds, and vitality) typically accessible to people, it’s important to maximise the worth of each analysis device, whether or not for buy or session. To that finish, the aim of this text is to survey a number of the most outstanding Hebrew Bible/Previous Testomony (HB/OT) lexicons and dictionaries and gauge their overarching effectiveness when it comes to comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usefulness, i.e., to critically consider the “the lexical panorama.”
These primary-language instruments have a tendency to return in two predominant varieties:
- Conventional philological lexicons
- Theological dictionaries
As per widespread parlance, nevertheless, I’ll (kind of) use the phrases “lexicon” and “dictionary” interchangeably all through this text.
This information is for anybody, scholar or scholar, who needs to judiciously make use of the most effective examine supplies accessible. Scores are on a one to 5 scale. A ranking of 1 or two stars signifies a suggestion towards its utilization. A ranking of three stars signifies {that a} useful resource is sweet however not nice. I additionally designate sources in accordance with three classes: layperson, minister (together with Bible school and Christian college/seminary college students), and scholar. Whereas I’ve tried to watch out, it appears finest to be a “shade too trenchant than a very good deal too bland.” Suffice to say, although, we now undergo from an “embarrassment of riches.”
The article begins with lexicons masking Hebrew and Aramaic, essentially the most uncared for of all biblical languages. After this, some non-English based mostly dictionaries will probably be lined. To be clear, these are lexicons which are written in both French, Latin, or German, the three commonest languages required for many research-based terminal diploma packages. The final sections contain theological wordbooks/dictionaries and the quite a few lexical works edited by David J. A. Clines.
Desk of contents
- Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
- Non-English based mostly Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
- Theological lexicons, wordbooks, and dictionaries
- Hebrew-only lexicons edited by David J. A. Clines
Ultimate tabulations
Concluding feedback
1. Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
Frank Matheus, A Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon (GlossaHouse, 2020)
★ | Minister
BHAL is predicated on Frank Matheus’s PONS Kompaktwörterbuch Althebräisch-Deutsch. It makes use of fashionable lexical approaches, presents environment friendly entry to pertinent information in an uncomplicated however complete method, is exceptionally cost-effective, and is extraordinarily clear in its presentation.
With respect to the basics,
- The verbs are cited as roots with out vowels.
- Verb kinds are listed within the standard order from the suffix conjugation (also called the so-called “excellent”) and the prefix conjugation (the so-called “imperfect”) to the participle.
- The nouns are organized (as regular) from standing absolutus within the singular (quotation kind) to standing constructus within the plural, with the grammatical assignments being represented by a quantity, the decision of which might be discovered within the footer on every web page (extra on this later).
As famous by the writer, this not solely saves house but additionally helps to maintain the lexicon “compact and effectively structured.” All ketib/qere variants are listed and are appropriately marked. Matheus additionally explicates:
The listed verbal kinds observe the standard sequence from the third to the primary individual, from the masculine to the female, from the singular to the plural. The third individual singular masculine is adopted by the third female, then the second masculine and female after which the primary individual—then the identical order within the plural. Kinds with enclitic pronouns respective of suffixes are categorised and marked by a small superscript e. The above-mentioned sequence from the third to the primary individual, and many others. additionally applies to them, accordingly. Below quantity 4, the nouns with suffixes are listed within the following order: his e-book, her e-book, your e-book (m. & f.), my e-book; their e-book (m. & f.), your e-book (m. & f.), our e-book; his books, her books, your books (m. & f.), my books; their books (m. & f.) your books (m. & f.), our books. Pausal kinds are solely marked with a p for higher distinguishability when they’re listed instantly subsequent to the identical contextual kind.
By the use of comparability, whereas William L. Holladay’s A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Eerdmans, 1988) is 4 hundred and twenty-seven pages in complete (twenty-nine pages of which cowl Aramaic), BHAL is simply 300 and ninety-eight pages (twenty-five pages for Aramaic). One must also be aware that BHAL has considerably bigger headings for every predominant entry (aleph, guess, and many others.) and accommodates way more white house than Holladay. The overall content material, subsequently, is considerably much less per entry in BHAL than in Holladay.
Along with this, one other irritant is the egregious undeniable fact that BHAL doesn’t leverage daring face sort for the precise definition of every phrase (not like Holladay). This makes looking via the lexicon itself a considerably cumbersome and unnecessarily dense process, at occasions. One does be aware, although, that every one (undisputed) incidents are recorded in BHAL through the open dot signal (⁰).
The definitions themselves are, as an entire, fairly clear (although considerably lackluster). Disappointingly, nevertheless, not like Holladay who makes use of the complete phrases for every of the Aramaic stems, e.g., Peal, Hitpeel, Hafel, and many others., BHAL solely makes use of abbreviations. As well as, not like Holladay, Hebrew cognates for any given phrase should not included within the definition. Which means that college students seeking to study biblical Aramaic through the comparative technique are at a (extreme) drawback utilizing BHAL.
In sum, whereas Frank Matheus’s A Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon is an up-to-date device that would, maybe, complement (at the very least in sure methods) Holladay’s trusted work, one can be hard-pressed to steer me that it considerably improves on (not to mention supplants) that textual content. In reality, I might argue that, given the selection, one can be silly to not go for Holladay.
Benjamin Davidson, The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Hendrickson Educational, 1981)
★ | Minister, Scholar
By providing beneficiant parsing particulars for Hebrew and Aramaic lexemes, this e-book bridges the hole between “effort and outcomes,” thereby facilitating better studying fluency. Stated in any other case, as a substitute of instructing the basics of Hebrew grammar, this work equips customers with the “means of creating speedy and positive after progress,” releasing them from the “tedium and disappointment of uncertainty” of their analytic research.
Whereas as soon as invaluable (although simply misused), it’s now out of date in gentle of fashionable Bible software program, which exponentially will increase productiveness and gives searches of “intoxicating complexity” in a “fraction of a second.”
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Clarendon, 1977)
★★ | Scholar
BDB is predicated on the sooner work of Wilhelm Gesenius (extra on this later) and Edward Robinson. Its function is to “set up the ‘correct meanings’ of Hebrew [and Aramaic] phrases in gentle of their ‘extra-Biblical historical past and relationship’ and ‘cognate languages.’”
As is thought amongst most specialists, the linguistic (philological) materials contained inside BDB is “sorely” out-of-date. One acknowledges, as an illustration, how the examine of Akkadian was nonetheless in its infancy at the moment. This isn’t to say the invention of Ugarit (1928–1929), and, in fact, the necessary position of the Useless Sea Scrolls usually (1947–1956). Equally, Paul D. Wegner (astutely) notes:
A lot of the proof cited from Arabic or South Arabic is doubtful, since it’s now generally acknowledged that Arabic is a Southwest Semitic language and that Hebrew and Aramaic are Northwest Semitic languages. Thus comparable phrases present in Arabic could probably not correspond to Hebrew and Aramaic phrases which will appear like cognates. BDB shouldn’t be used to find out a phrase’s etymology; in actual fact, critical errors have occurred by these unaware of this drawback.
One other problematic part of BDB is its association by “root.” Pedagogically, this impediment is successfully overcome via expertise and Bruce Einspahr’s Index to Brown-Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Moody, 1977). Linguistically, nevertheless, the so-called “root fallacy” stays a perpetual plague to each the scholarly and the uninitiated alike. One wonders what BDB’s revisions may present and the way the editors may overcome this.
William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Brill, 2000)
★★★ | Minister, Scholar
As famous above, there’s a dearth of up-to-date, user-friendly, and cheap lexicons masking Hebrew and Aramaic. This one—simply—is the most effective. Although little greater than one-third the majority of the Brown-Driver-Briggs or the bigger Koehler-Baumgartner lexicons, it contains every part {that a} non-advanced First Testomony reader wants.
The lexicon leverages daring face sort for phrase definitions and, not like BHAL, accommodates clear and efficient mark(s) for hapax legomenon vis à vis the dagger signal (†). One additionally notes that, not like another lexicons, each type of the phrase is listed within the entry. For many who should not as up-to-speed on their paradigms and are left scratching their heads over these “tough” types of the yiqtol or qatal, as an illustration, or the dreaded “discover the verb” workouts, that is useful.
J. A. Emerton lucidly states, Holladay additionally
offers references to, and lots of quotations from, consultant Previous Testomony passages wherein they’re discovered. His work thus avoids a critical weak point from which brief lexicons generally undergo, for they have an inclination to checklist the principal meanings of phrases however [tend] to supply inadequate assist to the reader in studying how they’re utilized in specific contexts within the Previous Testomony.
I heartily concur with Emerton’s evaluation.
Jonathan Gibson and Bryce Simon, An Interpretive Lexicon of Previous Testomony Hebrew and Aramaic: Evaluation of Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interjections, Particles, Prepositions, and Pronouns (Zondervan, 2024)
★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
This interpretive lexicon is compiled to supply customers with a “one-stop information” for the “syntactic perform and semantic vary” of the aforementioned essential parts of Hebrew grammar. That’s, the Interpretive Lexicon
gives a taxonomy of synaptic capabilities for key phrases throughout the principle Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons and grammars. All entries are given web page numbers and part references in order that they are often conveniently researched in print and digital codecs. Functioning each as a lexicon and an interpretive handbook, this useful resource helps the consumer shortly and simply decide the vary of translation prospects for a wide range of Hebrew and Aramaic phrases. It additionally serves to assist the reader of the Previous Testomony Scriptures transfer past a gloss translation to cautious interpretation culminating in a extra correct (re)translation.
A two-page glossary of definitions masking elements of speech, such because the which means of “particle” or “gerund,” for instance, is useful, as is the four-page enumeration of varied grammatical-functional subcategories, like “ablative,” “comitative,” “pleonastic,” “proclitic,” and “syndesis.”
A Hebrew lexeme that appears to have been unintentionally neglected is “all” (כל). This indefinite pronoun (with a quantifying perform) typically carries the sense or nuance of “totality.” Likewise, מכל, “from all,” a time period of appreciable theological import in Genesis, can be absent.
At occasions, one will get pissed off with the truth that the Interpretive Lexicon is “merely” a compendium. That’s, there may be little to no steering for interpretive prospects. As an alternative, the editors defer this to the grammars. On this method, I might, maybe, have discovered extra worth if somebody had up to date Robert D. Chisholm’s From Exegesis to Exposition: A Sensible Information to Utilizing Biblical Hebrew (Baker, 1999) as a substitute or Williams’ Hebrew Syntax, because it (kind of) does most of the identical issues because the Interpretive Lexicon however has the added bonus of offering ample textual examples.
One other minor level of criticism of the Interpretive Lexicon entails Gibson and Simon’s dealing with of waw. To be clear, “the seemingly countless capabilities of waw are literally not a lot capabilities of waw alone however of the bigger clausal and supra-clausal buildings of which waw is part.”
The altogether lack of indices (particularly Scripture) can be unlucky, as not a couple of customers are more likely to take advantage of use of this lexicon whereas working via particular (syntax) points from Scripture. Maybe a reprinting or revision of the quantity may assist treatment this infelicity.
Although some could quibble that J. C. L. Gibson’s Davidson’s Introductory Hebrew Grammar~Syntax, 4th ed. (T&T Clark, 1994) and Russel T. Fuller and Kyoungwon Choi’s Invitation to Biblical Hebrew Syntax: An Intermediate Grammar (Kregel, 2017) fail to seem throughout the Hebrew sources famous, nothing of substance (for my part) is misplaced. On the Aramaic facet, nevertheless, I’m uncertain as to why solely Cook dinner and Rosenthal are cited. Luckily, Scott N. Callaham’s Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters: A Parallel Hebrew-Aramaic Handbook (GlossaHouse, 2021) cures this drawback, as it’s the solely reference that’s “keyed” to the principle Aramaic grammars (very similar to Williams does for Hebrew).
To shut, as Andrew G. Shead maintains throughout the endorsements part of the quantity:
Right here, then, is a compendium that belongs in each critical biblical research library. It guarantees numerous hours of saved labor for college kids of Hebrew/Aramaic Scriptures, and a cautious curation of scholarly opinion that can empower exegetes to make knowledgeable decisions.
Extremely really useful!
An Interpretive Lexicon of Previous Testomony Hebrew and Aramaic: Evaluation of Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interjections, Particles, Prepositions, and Pronouns
Robert R. Duke, Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Dictionary (Zondervan, 2024)
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
BHAD is exclusive amongst all different lexicons for a wide range of causes. For one, Duke alone gives each the English and Hebrew names for the biblical books, exposes college students to texts in each Paleo- and common Hebrew script, and offers the complete checklist of types of the entry.
Duke’s quantity, although, doesn’t intend to interchange any of the usual Hebrew lexicons. Because the writer himself states:
This dictionary is trying to bridge a spot for intermediate college students who know primary Hebrew grammar and vocabulary however discover customary lexicons, like The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB) or The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (HALOT) to dense for simple entry. Whereas BDB and HALOT embrace useful and important reference information, the mid-level language scholar can really feel overwhelmed and lose a number of the preliminary ardour that they had for the Hebrew language. Thus, the objective has been to create a useful resource that simplifies with out falsifying the info.
Duke goes on to say:
Since having the unique idea and pouring [sic] over present sources to finish this challenge, I’ve seen myself as a curator. Similar to in museums, a curator wants to pick out one of the best ways to current content material to inform a narrative. My curatorial exercise has targeted on serving to college students see the variety within the methods Hebrew and Aramaic phrases exist within the Bible. The ultimate product gives a fast reference device that continues to attract them down the trail to mastery.
The challenge itself was guided by 5 rules:
- Embody all Hebrew phrases that seem ten or extra occasions, in addition to all Aramaic verbs and non-verbs that happen 5 or extra occasions.
- Checklist verbs by the primary letter of the “excellent” third masculine singular (3ms) kind, slightly than by the foundation.
- Design a user-friendly structure to simplify finding the precise kinds discovered within the biblical textual content.
- Incorporate materials in Paleo-Hebrew and unpointed texts from the Useless Sea Scrolls (a few of that are biblical quotes as preserved in Qumran).
- Present complete indices to assist find phrases extra readily identified by their root.
One notes that the Hebrew and Aramaic entries should not separated into two distinct sections, thus serving to college students see the similarities and variations when cognate entries are subsequent to one another. Nonetheless, the Aramaic sections are differentiated by grey textual content.
For verbs, simply the best problem for a piece valuing “ease of use,” the order of fabric offered underneath every verbal entry is as follows:
- infinitive assemble (infinite absolute) | suffixed kinds
- perfects | suffixed kinds
- imperfects | suffixed kinds
- participles (assemble kind) | suffixed kinds | passive participles | suffixed kinds
- imperatives | suffixed kinds
Regarding nouns, entries are organized:
- plural (together with twin kinds)
- assemble singular: suffixed kinds
- assemble plural: suffixed kinds
With respect to adjectives:
- (1) ms | fs | mp | fp
- (2) suffixed kinds
Individuals will discover alternative ways to make use of this dictionary successfully.
- BHAD might be consulted alongside the biblical textual content to make clear unfamiliar phrases. Whereas not exhaustive (nor meant to be), it gives sufficient vocabulary to cowl nearly all of biblical passages.
- The Hebrew and Aramaic examples can be utilized for self-testing. Instructors, as an illustration, may assign particular sections for quizzes or exams.
- BHAD is right for normal vocabulary assessment, particularly for Paleo-Hebrew and unpointed texts (a sensible strategy could be reviewing one letter per day over a month to refresh forgotten phrases). Constructing confidence with extrabiblical materials from Iron Age inscriptions, Qumran texts, and the Elephantine papyri, for instance, will finally permit readers to have interaction extra deeply with these fascinating corpora, enriching not solely their understanding of Scripture itself but additionally its broader context.
Miles V. Van Pelt places it effectively in saying that any useful resource serving to advance the biblical languages “is to be welcomed by each instructors and college students. The extrabiblical Hebrew citations … will set this useful resource other than different introductory and intermediate instruments.”
Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, eds., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Previous Testomony (Brill, 2000)
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
As indicated inside its preface, HALOT seeks to “render precisely in fashionable language the which means of the Hebrew phrases” by contemplating the “most necessary a part of linguistics … the comparability of languages.”
In evaluating HALOT, one notes that it advantages from the numerous developments in Semitic linguistics over the past century. This work attracts from Hebrew texts from the Useless Sea area and different cognate Semitic languages to find out the meanings of uncommon Hebrew phrases.
Phrases are organized alphabetically, addressing a significant limitation of BDB. The primary 4 volumes of the unique printing cowl Hebrew vocabulary. The fifth focuses on Aramaic.
There are two predominant drawbacks:
- The work is comparatively expensive (one can, although, save a ton at SBL if one has the baggage capability!).
- Except one owns it in Logos(!), it’s cumbersome to make use of, as readers should regularly change between volumes.
The unabridged two-volume examine version alleviates a few of these points. Luckily, the two-volume version matches the web page numbers of the five-volume set.
To conclude, as Benjamin J. Noonan maintains:
HALOT’s alphabetical association of phrases offers it a definite benefit over BBD when it comes to ease of use. Its up to date etymological information, introduced in transliterated kind slightly than its authentic script, can be a major power. Nevertheless, its etymological information just isn’t with out weak point. HALOT accommodates a variety of questionable etymologies and comparisons, significantly with respect to Arabic, that generally overshadow semantic and syntactic proof from the biblical textual content itself. Lastly, like BDB, HALOT suffers from use of glosses slightly than definitions.
Irrespective of those infelicities, HALOT two-volume examine version stays the most effective multi-volume lexicon of Hebrew-Aramaic. Interval. It ought to be consulted by all critical non secular college students. As Richard S. Hess states, “KB stays the lexicon of alternative and this cheaper version is a welcome function.”
2. Non-English based mostly Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons
Philippe Reymond, Dictionnaire D’Hebreu Et D’Arameen Bibliques (Société Biblique Française, 1998)
★★★ | Minister, Scholar
Parlez-vous français? Oui ou non? Uniquely, Canada stands aside as a bilingual nation with French and English as its two official languages. Given such, I’ve had the privilege of getting not a couple of Francophone college students in my Hebrew grammar class(es).
For these seeking to leverage (theological) French alongside their biblical Hebrew (and Aramaic) abilities, this lexicon is taken into account to be the crème de la crème, because it leverages clear symbols for “sure,” “approximate,” and “disputed” translation values and is modestly priced. Daniel Bourget succinctly places it: “Quand on me demande quel est aujourd’hui le meilleur dictionnaire hébreu-français, je ne réponds qu’après un temps d’hésitation.” Now to attend for extra publishers to see the worth of French, as they’ve completed for Latin and German!
Franz S. J. Zorell, ed., Lexicon Hebraicum et Aramaicum Veteris Testamenti (Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1952)
★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
As alluded to above, there appears to be an uptick within the availability of primary sources for learners of ecclesiastical Latin. For college students of the First Testomony, nevertheless, there isn’t a higher cease than Zorrell. As Mark D. Futato Sr. advised me, “I taught myself Latin in grad faculty simply so I may use Zorrell.” Hildrup concludes, “many a era of ecclesiastical college students of Hebrew [and Aramaic] will notice their indebtedness to its realized and industrious authors.” Frederick W. Danker additionally describes this work as being “past query a noteworthy achievement, and to be blessed for, amongst different issues, Zorell’s therapy of ben Sira’s Hebrew diction.” Danker explains,
The Aramaic therapy initially deliberate for this lexicon was shifted to a extra complete consideration of Aramaic utilization. Lexicon linguae aramaicae Veteris Testamenti documentis antiquis illustratum, ed. E. Vogt (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1971). After this modification in plan, Zorell’s work bore the title Lexicon Hebraicum Veteris Testamenti, and the ending touches have been accomplished in 1984.
It’s organized in two columns with an efficient use of spacing and symbols. One notes that every one correct names are befittingly transcribed as within the Vulgate.
Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testomony, ed. Herbert Donner et al. (Springer Verlag, 2013)
★★★★★ | Scholar
G. Geoffrey Harper poignantly writes, “‘Do I [really] have to study German?’ The look within the scholar’s eye betrays the reply they hope to listen to. Growing a capability to work together with German literature is a frightening, but typically required, process for [many] anglophone doctoral college students.” Regardless of the not-insignificant challenges concerned, nevertheless, there may be good motive for each tutorial to hunt to grow to be more and more intimate and extra conversant in German scholasticism in toto. For these diligently engaged in Hebrew Bible/Previous Testomony (HB/OT) research, this entails successfully leveraging Gesenius18.
Rightly understood as a “pioneer” within the examine of Hebrew grammar and lexicography, the fabric of Wilhem Gesenius (1786–1842) nonetheless serves because the traditional, customary reference materials. For the sake of readability, the seventeenth version of Gesenius was initially printed in 1915. The eighteenth version of Gesenius took nearly thirty years of publication.
Herbert Donner, the chief editor, outlines six guiding rules upheld throughout the eighteenth version of this lexicon:
- Complete inclusion of all types of every phrase showing within the Hebrew Previous Testomony, as introduced throughout the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.
- Contextual readability for phrases, making multi-word Hebrew constructions comprehensible.
- Constrained engagement with historic and stylistic inquiries.
- Selective inclusion of and/or reference(s) to text-critical points.
- Thorough inclusion of correct names (together with individuals and locations).
- The incorporation of all related info on historical Close to East (ANE) historical past.
One notes that the editors have deliberately restricted the lexicon’s scope to exclude all phrases not discovered within the HB/OT.
Jacob Corzine’s feedback are price noting in full:
Gesenius 18 is structured in another way than BDB. The phrases should not grouped alphabetically in accordance with their root phrase, however slightly organized strictly alphabetically. Compared with BDB or Gesenius 17, the brand new quantity is extra comfy to make use of, as apparent progress in e-book publishing reveals itself over a close to one-hundred 12 months hole. The totally different sections inside a person entry are a lot simpler to establish, and the textual content is mostly simpler to scan trying to find kinds … since Gesenius lists most (now: all) types of a phrase that seem within the Previous Testomony.
In sum, there isn’t a different one-volume lexicon that gives the identical wealth of element. Interval.
3. Theological lexicons, wordbooks, and dictionaries
Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, eds. Theological Lexicon of the Previous Testomony, trans. Mark E. Biddle, 3 vols. (Hendrickson, 1997)
★★★ | Layperson, Minister, Scholar
TLOT is an exceptionally user-friendly set of volumes, as soon as printed in German as Theologisches Handwörterbuch zum Alten Testomony (THAT).
There’s a lot to commend regarding TLOT. First, along with conventional philological inquiry (see footnote two above), particular consideration was dedicated to linguistics whereas remaining keenly conscious of quite a few pitfalls—hooray! The editors state, “It’s not attainable on the premise of phrase examine alone to assemble a theology. Cf. James Barr, Semantics of Biblical Language (SCM, 1983).
Second, TLOT boasts a formidable cross-reference system, being “keyed” to BDB and HALOT —to not point out NIDOTTE, TDNT/TDOT, and TWOT (see beneath for extra particulars on this). Earlier than the digital age, this function alone made TLOT significantly invaluable for a lot of people. Following the Hold It Easy, Silly (KISS) precept, TLOT was deliberately designed to assist theologians and pastors with “minimal data of Hebrew and OT research” higher perceive and preach from the First Testomony; therefore, its accessibility is S-tier.
To critique, lexicography has superior considerably since these volumes have been printed (significantly the German originals). Additionally, technologically talking, Bible software program packages have made most of the distinguishing options of TLOT far much less necessary than they was once.
Gleason Archer Jr., R. Laird Harris, and Bruce Okay. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Previous Testomony, single vol. ed. (Moody, 2003)
★★★★ | Layperson, Minister, Scholar
This work boasts 1,400 articles written by forty-three top-rate students, plus some 4 hundred sub-entries giving definitions solely.
The brand new version of this not-insignificant reference work combines the unique two volumes (Moody: 1980) into one. The editors duly acknowledge a sensitivity to “exegetical fallacies,” stating,
Phrase examine doesn’t result in a complete understanding of the Previous Testomony textual content—or any textual content. Phrases should all the time be taken in context. They’ve a variety of which means, thus ’āmar could generally imply ‘communicate,’ generally ‘command.’ Thus, it overlaps with dābar on the one hand and ṣāwâ on the opposite. Additionally, the etymologies of phrases should not all the time determinate of meanings … Biblical utilization is subsequently the most effective criterion of the which means of a phrase, and to that finish our authors have depended closely on their concordances.
That mentioned, it is usually price noting that TWOT deliberately arranges phrases underneath roots, i.e., “the verbal root and the derived phrases are mentioned collectively. However all of the derivatives are additionally listed of their correct alphabetical place with a … numerical cross reference to guide the consumer to the foundation verb the place, whether it is theologically necessary, a dialogue of the which means of the foundation verb and all its derivatives will probably be discovered.” Customers must verify for themselves the professionals and cons of this.
Whereas there may be an Aramaic part (not like TLOT, by the use of instance), it barely warrants point out as not a couple of occasions the entry is merely, “Utilization much like Hebrew.” That mentioned, there are some occasional gems to be discovered and a few refreshing reminders about Aramaic grammar. The perfect entries are these signed by Charles D. Isbell, similar to ‘bā’û” (petition, request), ’aḥăwāyâ (declaration, interpretation), ‘ddān (time, interval, span, 12 months, period), and ‘ăbad (make, do, carry out, create [Peal]; be made, be completed, be carried out, executed/carried out [Hithpeal]).
Broadly talking, TWOT could be thought-about by some people to be extra readable and “evangelical pleasant” in its strategy to Scripture, as in comparison with TLOT.
Willem A. VanGemeren, ed., New Worldwide Dictionary of Previous Testomony Theology and Exegesis, 5 vols. (Zondervan, 1997)
★★★★★ | Layperson, Minister, Scholar
NIDOTTE accommodates greater than three thousand articles written by greater than 200 students from twenty-four nations and over 100 tutorial establishments. NIDOTTE is an indispensable useful resource and a useful addition to any biblical scholar’s assortment—warranting common reference and session.
NIDOTTE has 4 predominant elements:
- A information (vol. 1a)
- The dictionary correct; which is clearly the center of NIDOTTE, its raison d’être (vols. 1b–4a)
- A topical index (vol. 4b)
- Indices (vol. 5)
“The Information to Previous Testomony Theology and Exegesis,” which can be accessible as a separate paperback quantity (Zondervan, 1999), is comprised of a number of articles spanning a variety of subjects to assist orient oneself to the duty at hand.
- Within the Introduction, Vanhoozer discusses hermeneutics
- Half I handles textual criticism (Waltke)
- Half II covers Previous Testomony historical past (Merrill and Lengthy)
- Half III explores literary approaches (Longman) and narrative criticism (Satterthwaite)
- Half IV gives a theoretical strategy to linguistics (Cotterell), adopted by Walton’s “Ideas for Productive Phrase Examine”
- In Half V, Martens and Schultz cowl varied elements of Previous Testomony theology
- Lastly, throughout the conclusion, VanGemeren illustrates find out how to use NIDOTTE extra exactly via the efficient examples of Ruth 1 and Psalm 119:1–8
For the sake of readability, the topical dictionary delineates the theology of every e-book of the Previous Testomony, historic epochs (e.g., Kingdom of Judah, exile, intertestamental interval), individuals and locations (geography) of the HB/OT, extrabiblical literature (e.g., apocrypha and pseudepigrapha), and sure key ideas, similar to, for instance, “Retribution.” As famous above, the fifth quantity (indices) is especially useful because it opens up better entry to cruising the dictionary. A very powerful of those, maybe, is the Index of Semantic Fields, since NIDOTTE is the one lexicon accessible in print (that I’m conscious of) that arranges lexemes into “buckets of which means,” thereby eliminating many exegetical fallacies.
That mentioned, neither TLOT, TWOT, nor NIDOTTE does this completely. Benjamin J. Noonan relates:
Every of those initiatives started after Barr’s critique of theological dictionaries. Subsequently, they exhibit at the very least some consciousness of the pitfalls inherent to offering a theological dictionary … General TDOT, TLOT, and NIDOTTE preserve a distinction between phrase and idea. Nevertheless, they don’t all the time achieve this efficiently, partly as a result of their construction inherently associates particular ideas with every phrase set, slightly than the opposite method round. On the identical time, as a result of phrases are finally not separable kind ideas, and since we as interpreters lack encyclopedic data of historical Israel attributable to our historic and cultural distance, theological dictionaries stay helpful repositories of information.
Simply as Silva edited the NIDNTTE, one can solely hope for a brand new, second version of NIDOTTE.
New Worldwide Dictionary of Previous Testomony Theology and Exegesis | NIDOTTE (5 vols.)
G. Johannes Botterweck et al., eds., Theological Dictionary of the Previous Testomony, 17 vols. (Eerdmans, 1977–2021)
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
The TDOT gives practically exhaustive analysis and evaluation of just about each lexeme and phrase group throughout the entirety of the HB/OT. As Robert B. Chisholm Jr. emphasizes in his assessment of quantity 15: “This quantity, like different volumes on this collection, will probably be a useful useful resource for biblical exegetes and theologians.”
Quantity 16 (2018), authored by Holger Gzella, covers Aramaic, whereas quantity 17 (2021) is devoted solely to indices. This quantity tabulates the entries for over a thousand phrases masking 4 thousand pages throughout sixteen books printed over a interval of forty-five years. Whew!
There’s little else so as to add regarding TDOT that hasn’t already been lined above. So on the danger of belaboring the purpose relating to the constraints of theological dictionaries, usually, it’s price quoting Benjamin J. Noonan (as soon as once more), who makes clear:
Though every challenge claims to supply a dictionary based mostly on semantic fields, none absolutely delivers. NIDOTTE comes the closest to doing so in that it gives an index of semantic fields. Nonetheless, in every challenge semantic fields should not effectively outlined, nor are they based mostly on any clear standards. Moreover, entries don’t all the time pay enough consideration to synonyms and antonyms. Right here particularly there stays vital room for development, and hopefully future theological dictionaries will give better consideration to this space.
Theological Dictionary of the Previous Testomony and New Testomony Assortment | TDOT/TDNT (27 vols.)
4. Hebrew-only lexicons edited by David J. A. Clines
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (9 vols.); The Concise Lexicon of Classical Hebrew; and The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew: Revised
★★★★★ | Minister, Scholar
Professor David J. A. Clines handed away on the age of eighty-four (1938–2022). As famous by Stanley E. Porter, whereas “David made a sustained contribution to biblical research over the course of over 5 a long time … I believe that David’s most important contribution was arguably the position that he performed in founding and serving as director/writer of JSOT Press/Sheffield Educational Press after which Sheffield Phoenix Press.” Porter goes on to remark,
I believe that the dictionary was solely attainable due to Clines’s angle towards scholarly publishing as exemplified by each JSOT/SAP and SPP. His being writer of these presses was in all probability what enabled the dictionary (in a number of volumes printed over thirty years!) to return into existence.
Statistically talking, the outcomes of Clines’s lexical labors are staggering! To be clear:
DCH is the primary ever lexicon printed of the traditional Hebrew language as an entire; earlier dictionaries have restricted themselves to the proof of the Hebrew Bible, ignoring the Hebrew of the Useless Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) and the traditional Hebrew inscriptions. Each incidence of each phrase (other than a number of the commonest particles) is cited in extremely analytical articles. A pervasive theme of the Dictionary is its focus on the meanings of phrases in context: for all nouns, for instance, the verbs of which they’re the topic or object are famous, and for all verbs, the nouns which are their topics or objects. Two additional revolutionary options of the Dictionary are its intensive bibliographies and its incorporation of greater than 3500 phrases not beforehand recorded in Hebrew dictionaries. Along with the complete dictionary, a one-volume model of the Dictionary was printed in 2009. All that is additionally accessible electronically as a module in two Bible software program packages, Accordance and Logos.
The following nine-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Revised (2018–25) continues apace to be ready for print and software program format subject, and as soon as printed in entirety will probably be 25% longer at 5 million phrases, with 100,000 enhancements and an additional 2,800 phrases in comparison with the unique dictionary. This will probably be accompanied by The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised … with 1 million phrases, and the extra compact Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (forthcoming 2025).
Two issues should be made clear previous to elaborating on extra of the particulars of those particular lexicons. First, very similar to BDB and HALOT, the DCH and the CDCH leverage glosses slightly than definitions for every entry. Noonan’s phrases regarding this are price quoting in full:
Glosses indicate one-to-one correspondence between the Biblical Hebrew … phrase and the trendy gloss. This may be deceptive when their meanings don’t match up totally. It doesn’t, moreover, line up with present lexicographic follow. Particularly when the dictionary consumer is unaware of the cultural world of the supply language, lexicographers advocate giving an explanatory equal … The problem right here is to know the way a lot description is critical—and sensible—for the consumer. Nonetheless, biblical lexicographers would do effectively to include definitions with at the very least some encyclopedic data into their lexicons.
It’s price noting, subsequently, that The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) is alleged to typically current an “prolonged definition” and that the articles on “vegetation and animals … in addition to individuals and place names” are mentioned by the editors to explicitly provide “encyclopedic info.”
Second, it must be made clear that, not like BDB and HALOT, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised deliberately excludes etymological information. Clines explicitly states:
Cognates in different Semitic languages haven’t usually been listed on this Dictionary. Such info has grow to be conventional in Hebrew lexica of the final two centuries, however its presence in a Hebrew dictionary is sort of problematic, and it’s tough to see what function it serves. Theoretically talking, that’s, information concerning the which means of cognate phrases in Akkadian and Arabic, for instance, are strictly irrelevant to the Hebrew language; and, virtually talking, there may be proof that the importance of the cognates has been systematically misunderstood by many customers of the normal dictionaries.
As famous by reviewers, this function isn’t (if ever) appreciated amongst most customers of Clines. Benjamin Noonan (likewise) avers:
It’s true that etymological information is usually solely included in diachronic … dictionaries, which Hebrew Bible lexicons should not. It’s also true that biblical lexicographers have regularly misused etymological information, as BDB and even the current HALOT show. Nevertheless … the Hebrew Bible’s many uncommon phrases require the usage of etymology, and abuse doesn’t preclude correct use.
Noonan continues to argue:
Moreover, etymology is useful for distinguishing homonyms … and together with etymological information facilitates the comparative technique for the Semitic language. It could subsequently be rash to exclude etymological information altogether. Nonetheless, there may be room for debate on how finest to incorporate such information.
Statistically talking, it’s prudent of Noonan to focus on the rarity of phrases throughout the HB/OT and their distinctive relationship to cognate languages. That is particularly poignant given how Akkadian is the earliest attested Semitic language and that no different Semitic language—apart from Eblaite—shares vocabulary with Akkadian as intently as Hebrew does, with 53 % of Akkadian phrases having Hebrew cognates. As Gordon P. Hugenberger and Nancy L. Erickson preserve, this shut relationship has “confirmed indispensable for illuminating meanings and definitions of Hebrew phrases.” On this method, “Akkadian is, arguably, a very powerful language for a greater understanding of the Previous Testomony apart from the biblical languages themselves.”
Such issues however, Clines’s exclusion of cognate phrase(s) is legitimate. He states:
It’s typically mentioned, for instance, that the perform of noting the cognates is to point how it’s that we all know the which means of the Hebrew phrase to be such and such; however that is incorrect, since there may be often a fairly complicated set of evidences for such issues, starting from inner consistency throughout the Hebrew texts to the testimony of historical variations and to Jewish lexicographical and exegetical custom; and there’s no motive to privilege the actual sort of proof, problematic as it’s, that’s offered by the cognate languages. We’ve got not, in actual fact, taken it as a normal requirement of our process to justify the meanings we suggest for the Hebrew phrases (nevertheless fascinating such an endeavor could also be); that’s too complicated a process to be completed throughout the confines of a dictionary.
In short, although some could quibble, Clines’s strikes the correct steadiness inside DCHR. That’s:
When a cognate in one other language has been adduced in help of a proposed new phrase, that cognate is talked about within the bibliographic entry after the gloss … On the identical precept, a Biblical Hebrew (BH) phrase supporting a newly proposed phrase has the same entry … Cognates in different languages haven’t been famous in The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised correct, although loanwords have been; however not within the specific case of latest phrases we predict it useful, and certainly essential, to supply the proof.
Some extra options and traits:
- Not like BDB and HALOT, for instance, DCHR additionally contains an exceptionally thorough users-guide. Although not as complete in nature as NIDOTTE, Clines’s introduction gives every part readers require to be successfully oriented to the textual content.
- Particularly useful are the separate bibliographies for every letter (and lexeme) on the finish of every quantity and the statistical info offered.
- Not like all different lexica (at the very least that I’m conscious of), the DCHR reveals for every phrase “within the 4 corpora of Classical Hebrew (Hebrew Bible, Ben Sira, the Useless Sea Scrolls and the Inscriptions) the variety of occurrences; and within the case of verbs, incidence statistics are additionally given for every of its voice (binyanim).
- DCHR has an English-Hebrew index, lists synonyms, antonyms, syntagmatic relations, and judiciously organizes phrases into semantic fields for a nuanced understanding. There are 354 semantic fields (following that of Reinier de Blois’s SDBH famous above).
DCHR is (past doubt) the most effective multi-volume print lexicon of the Hebrew language. Interval.
Ultimate tabulations
To observe is every of the principle lexical sources listed above—with their rankings.
Greatest sources for laypersons
- NIDOTTE
- Think about Lee M. Fields, Hebrew for the Remainder of Us, 2nd ed. (Zondervan, 2023)
Greatest useful resource for ministers and college students
- HALOT
- NIDOTTE & TDOT
- DCH & DCHR
- BHAD
Greatest print sources for students
- HALOT
- Gesenius18
- NIDOTTE & TDOT
- DCH & DCHR
- Vogt (Aramaic)
As famous originally of this text, we undergo from a humiliation of riches relating to Hebrew and Aramaic lexicons. In fact, in addition to the instruments listed above, vocabulary builders, chrestomathies, and (maybe particularly) grammars can all advance the effectiveness of 1’s examine of the authentic languages. When mixed with the huge array of sources accessible for the examine of the New Testomony and the Septuagint (LXX), usually, there may be a lot trigger to rejoice.
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