Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 62:2 (Jun 2019)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JETS 62:2 (June 2019) p. 371

Book Reviews

Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension—An Introductory Grammar. By Karl V. Kutz and Rebekah L. Josberger. Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2018, xxviii + 471 pp., $39.99.

Really, another Hebrew grammar? Don’t we have enough already? That might be every Hebrew teacher’s reaction to learning about this one. However, Kutz and Josberger present a refreshing, student-friendly beginning grammar. Kutz is Professor of Biblical Languages at Multnomah University and Josberger is Associate Professor of Hebrew and OT at Multnomah Biblical Seminary. Kutz contributed three chapters in Dead Sea Scroll Fragments of the Museum Collection (ed. Emanuel Tov et al.; Brill, 2016) and “Characterization in the Old Greek of Job,” in Seeking Out the Wisdom of the Ancients (ed. Ronald Troxel et al.; Eisenbrauns, 2005).

Students and teachers will find this grammar more friendly than most other Hebrew textbooks. Charts that present the relationships and distinctions between the verb stems (pp. 149, 229, 251) encapsulate information in a fashion easily remembered. Drop-down menus for the same chart add a familiar touch to a computer-literate generation of students (pp. 150, 165). Awareness of how students think results in information appearing in the grammar just because “students wonder what it means” (p. 427). Telling students outright that some verb meanings must be looked up in the lexicon eases the pressure to memorize (p. 240). When it comes to memorizing, Kutz and Josberger provide students with a variety of mnemonic devices (e.g. the “Skin ‘em Levi,” p. 21; “BuMP-Shewa rule,” p. 52; “p-sghetti” rule, p. 245). Perhaps the most student-friendly element occurs in the constant encouragement: “Most important of all, do not give up if you do not parse a word correctly on your first try!” (p. 364, emphasis original). That same encouraging tone concludes the grammar’s last chapter by suggesting a means by which students might preserve, nourish, and expand their Hebrew knowledge (pp. 412–13).

Older textbooks and former courses offered in decades gone by too often emphasize rote memorization of immense quantities of verb paradigms and noun/adjective declensions. Kutz and Josberger offer a more effective and student-friendly pedagogical model. Students learning how a language works (p. 32) do far better than those who are told, “That’s just the way it is—memorize it.” Introducing students to the “Canaanite Shift” (pp. 65 n. 6; 396–97) and historic forms (pp. 67–79) builds a foundation for understanding how Biblical Hebrew works—how it develops its word forms (pp. 215, 286–87, 299). Memorization still proves necessary for certain elements, so those a...