Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 24:1 (Spring 2020)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

SBJT 24:1 (Spring 2020) p. 173

Book Reviews

Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar. 2nd Ed. By Page H. Kelley and Timothy G. Crawford. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018, 460 pp., $40.00 paper.

A Handbook to Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar. 2nd Ed. By Page H. Kelley, Terry L. Burden, and Timothy G. Crawford. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018, 249 pp., $28.00 paper.

The first edition of Kelley’s Biblical Hebrew has been widely acknowledged as a classic grammar. It was designed to be simple and straightforward for students learning in a classroom setting. This edition and the accompanying handbook were the subject of several reviews when they were first printed. For example, the most detailed reviews are by Walter E. Brown, “Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar,” The Theological Educator 54 (1996): 139–42, and Robert C. Stallman, “Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar,” Westminster Theological Journal 56:1 (1994): 190–92. In addition, one may consult Ehud Ben Zvi, “Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar,” Hebrew Studies 36 (1995): 126–28, and Robert P. Betts, “Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar,” The Reformed Theological Review 52:1 (1993): 40–41. In light of the number of reviews for the first edition, this review will focus strictly upon the changes in the second edition. As Timothy Crawford notes in his preface, “there are changes on virtually every page … in a few places these are fairly significant” (xiii). The goal of the second edition was to keep Kelley’s approach while updating some of the terms and clarifying ambiguities that were pointed out by instructors using the textbook in their classes.

In terms of layout and style, the second edition is much simpler than the first. The section numbering is much more logical. The first edition started each major section with a new number and continued that numbering throughout the book. This meant that the numbering did not follow the chapters (e.g., the first section of Lesson III was labeled section 4 and the last section of Lesson III was section 7). This edition enumerates each section in

SBJT 24:1 (Spring 2020) p. 174

the outer margin with the standard convention of chapter and section (e.g., Lesson 3 starts with 3.1 and the last section of Lesson 3 is 3.4). In addition, when students are asked to work with the Hebrew Bible, it is reproduced in the textbook every time whereas the first edition required students to use their BHS (29–30). Another stylistic change in the second edition is the use of gray boxes that define common terms. For example, masculine singular being represented by “ms” is defined in the new edition whereas the previous editio...