Learning Biblical Hebrew (Reading for Comprehension: An Introductory Grammar)

What's the best way to learn a new language? By approaching it not as a series of facts to memorize but as something alive, with a personality you can get to know and tendencies you can sometimes predict.

Designed for long-term retention, Learning Biblical Hebrew focuses on helping students understand how the Hebrew language works and providing a solid grounding in Hebrew through extensive reading in the biblical text.

• Introduces advanced concepts in a form accessible to beginning students.


• Focuses on historic patterns and changes that minimize memorization.


• Focuses on how the language works for long-term retention.


• Encourages mastery of paradigms from a handful of representative forms.


• Includes extensive translation from the third week of class.


• Prepares students for translation of unedited biblical texts by the end of first semester.


• Emphasizes reading comprehension rather than decoding.


• Promotes a strong oral component to enhance language competence.

Written for first-year and second-year Hebrew students, grammar is laid out to present comprehensive concepts to first-year students and then to aid in review and deeper understanding for second-year students.

Though written for Hebrew competency, Learning Biblical Hebrew is also well-suited for students with different learning styles and objectives.