A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
It is the standard required text in many intermediate-advanced Hebrew courses and is an excellent reference for learning Hebrew on your own!
Joüon-Muraoka's grammar was originally written in French in 1923 but has been recently translated and updated to reflect modern advances in the field. It is frequently cited by lexicons, commentaries and Bible dictionaries (e.g., HALOT, WBC, Anchor). It also makes a great companion to other Hebrew grammars available for Logos Bible Software such as Waltke-O'Connor, van der Merwe, Futato, and Gesenius-Kautsch-Cowley.
Students of the Old Testament, Hebrew, and Semitic linguistics who have a basic knowledge of biblical Hebrew grammar will find much useful insight and information here.
The 2006 revision of A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew is available for purchase.
- The original French edition of 1923 has been revised substantially and expanded in the light of subsequent advances in the fields of Hebrew, both biblical and post-biblical (Mishnaic or Rabbinic), and the cognate languages, especially the Northwest Semitic languages and dialects. Works published in Modern Hebrew have been widely consulted.
- All the branches of Hebrew grammar are dealt with: phonetics/phonology, morphology, and syntax. Being a reference grammar, it eschews, in the main body of the text, extensive debate, whereas many footnotes interact with divergent views and opinions, and also provide fairly substantial bibliographical information.
- There is hardly any point of syntax that is not illustrated by references; and in many cases copious examples are provided, with English translation. A full index of passages attached should be found extremely useful.
- A study of this grammar would further enable students to grapple with more advanced Hebrew grammars such as the incomplete grammars of Bergsträsser and Bauer-Leander, and more technical monographs and articles on Hebrew philology.
Top Highlights
“Proper nouns are in themselves determinate, since they designate unique beings. Therefore they do not take any determining element.” (Volume 2, Page 505)
“Akkadian comprises two dialects, Babylonian and Assyrian” (Volume 1, Page 4)
“Outside the biblical texts, Old Hebrew is represented by a considerable body of epigraphical materials such as the famous Gezer agricultural calendar (10th cent.), Samaria ostraca (early 8th cent.), the Siloam inscription (ca. 700), over one hundred ostraca from Arad in the Negev (mostly from the end of the 6th cent. B.C.), and 22 Lachish ostraca (from about the same period as the Arad ostraca). The inscription of Mesha, King of Moab (cf. 2Kg 3. 4) (ca. 850), is in a language which does not differ from Hebrew except in minor details(5).” (Volume 1, Page 6)
“Hebrew(1) is a development of the language spoken in Canaan before the arrival of the Israelites(2). The ancient language of Canaan(3) is known, among other things, through glosses of the Babylonian letters found at Tell el Amarna (Upper Egypt).” (Volume 1, Page 5)
“The Pentateuch, in view of its recitation in the synagogue service, is divided into 54 sections (פָּרָשָׁה). A section is said to be open (פְּתוּחָה) when the following section must begin at the start of the following line, thus leaving some space at the end of the open section; it is said to be closed (סְתוּמָה) when the following section need not begin at the very start of the following line.” (Volume 1, Page 70)
"With regard to both the scope of the present work and the mode of presentation, we have had in mind the ever-growing group of students who feel it necessary to go beyond the stage of purely factual knowledge and wish to develop their ability to resolve the numerous grammatical difficulties of the massoretic text instead of merely bypassing them. They will find here not only all the fundamental concepts, but also most of the details of minor importance. As for the many minute details and anomalies which can make the study of Hebrew such a discouraging undertaking, we have had to set a limit. Besides, what is important for the student is not so much to know a great number of details as to be able to identify an unusual form and to decide whether it is explicable or, having no comparable form, it is anomalous or incorrect. But where it was found that a detail, even the most trivial, could throw some light on some obscure matter, we did not hesitate to note it. One will find here many point of detail not dealt with by E. Kautzsch; on the other hand, some details given by this grammarian have been deliberately left out."
—Paul Joüon, from the Preface to the Original French Edition
"If you cannot read German but you can read English, your native language is not a Semitic language, you have passed elementary Biblical Hebrew and you are reading the Hebrew Bible, you must have the two volumes of Joüon-Muraoka handy! They are indispensable, readable and helpful!"
Steven Blackwelder
"Joüon’s Grammaire, with its fine treatment of syntax, aims at reaching those who desire to advance beyond the beginner’s stage but are not prepared to halt at all minutiae."
F. W. Danker, Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study
"...remarkably erudite"
Douglas Stuart, Old Testament Exegesis
- Title: A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Subsidia Biblica, 14; 2 vols)
- Author: Paul Joüon
- Translator: Takamitsu Muraoko
- Edition: Fourth
- Publisher: Pontifical Biblical Institute Press
- Publication Date: 2003
- Pages: 779
Takamitsu Muraoko, born in Japan in 1938. Educated at the Tokyo Kyoiku University in English philology (BA 1960), Greek, Hebrew, and general linguistics (MA 1962); at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in Hebrew and Semitic linguistics (PhD 1970).
Taught Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, and Ethiopic at the University of Manchester, England 1970-80; Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching same 1980-91; Professor of Hebrew, Leiden University, Holland, 1991-. Author of Modern Hebrew for Biblical Scholars (Sheffield, 1982); A Greek-Hebrew/Aramaic Index to I Esdras (Chico, 1984); Emphatic Words and Structures in Biblical Hebrew (Jerusalem/ Leiden, 1985); Classical Syriac for Hebraists (Wiesbaden, 1987); many other books and articles. Editor: Abr-Nahrain (Leiden/ Leuven) since 1980.
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