A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew: Revised English Edition
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Already well-known in its two-volume first edition, this is the most extensive revision yet of Paul Joüon and T. Muraoka’s Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, one of the most complete Hebrew grammars available in English. The first English edition of 1991 was based on the original work in French by Paul Joüon published for the first time in 1923. This new revised edition brings the work up to the present by taking account of developments in our understanding of the Hebrew language during the intervening years. As with the earlier edition, students of the Old Testament, Hebrew, and Semitics, who have a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew, will find much useful insight and information here.
The fourth edition of A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew is available for purchase.
- Textual errors in the first edition corrected
- Incorporates developments in Hebrew linguistics since the first English edition in 1991
- Expanded citations and bibliography
Top Highlights
“Hebrew, like other cognate languages, makes an extensive use of pseudo-prepositions; these are a combination of one of the prepositions mentioned earlier—notably ב, כ, ל, מן, על—and a substantive, often lexemes denoting parts of body such as יָד, פָּנִים, עֵינַ֫יִם, פֶּה, רֶ֫גֶל in the status constructus. Such nouns are mostly not used in their primary, but in their figurative sense: e.g., Gn 41.42 וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָהּ עַל־יַד יוסף and he put it on Joseph’s hand as against Ex 2.5 נַעֲרֹתֶ֫יהָ הֹלְכֹת עַל־יַד הַיְאֹר the maidens were strolling along the Nile. Other examples are: בְּיַד, כְּיַד, לְיַד, מִיַּד, עַל־יַד; בְּפִי, כְּפִי, לְפִי, מִפִּי, עַל פִּי; בִּפְנֵי, לִפְנֵי, מִפְּנֵי, מִלִּפְנֵי, עַל פְּנֵי; לְרֶ֫גֶל. A description of their lexical meanings belongs to dictionaries.” (Page 319)
“The most advanced stage of post-exilic Hebrew is represented by the language of Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles(2).” (Page 10)
“tend to point to a continuous, if not straight and linear, development from Late Biblical Hebrew onwards.” (Page 10)
“Differences in language must have existed, for instance, between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. But the data at our disposal hardly enable us to pinpoint those differences sufficiently to speak of a northern dialect and a southern dialect.” (Page 10)
“But how arbitrary the BH orthography can be in this regard may be illustrated by” (Page 46)
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 . . . Joüon-Maraoka 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
Takamitsu Muraoka was born in Japan and educated at the Tokyo Kyoiku University in English Philology (B.A. 1960), Greek, Hebrew, and general linguistics (M.A. 1962), and Hebrew and Semitic Linguistics (Ph.D. 1970) at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He taught Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Ethiopic at the University of Manchester, U.K. (1970–1980). He was Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching those languages (1980–1991). He was Professor of Hebrew at Leiden University, the Netherlands (1991–2003). His publications include Emphatic Words and Structures in Biblical Hebrew (Jerusalem/Leiden, 1985), Modern Hebrew for Biblical Scholars, (Wiesbaden, 1998), and A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Chiefly of the Pentateuch and the Twelve Prophets) (Leuven, 2002). With B. Porten he also wrote A Grammar of Egyptian Aramaic (Leiden, 2003), Classical Syriac: A Basic Grammar with a Chrestomathy (Wiesbaden, 2005), as well as many other books and articles. Professor Muraoka has recently received the distinction of being elected as an Honorary Member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Jerusalem (2006).
Reviews
9 ratings
Junyong Park
9/10/2024
Hernando Cardenas O.
3/15/2024
Stephanus Karnadhi
11/28/2023
This is confusing, faithlife should correct this. In the overview it is stated "Already well-known in its two-volume first edition" .. giving the impression that this is the third edition, and then it is stated "a fourth edition is .. for puchased" and give you the link to the third edition of 2003!
Patrick J. Madden
2/22/2019
My hard copies of Jouon (French) and Jouon-Muraoka both have an extensive SCRIPTURAL INDEX. I was hoping for a hyper-linked scripture index in my electronic copies (I bought both of the Logos editions). Alas! there is no scripture index at all. I "work around" this by using the scripture index in my hard copies to direct me to the correct location in my electronic version. The electronic version is certainly a convenience. However, it would be much more valuable if it contained the scriptural index -- with hyperlinks!
Fernando Torres
11/1/2018
Boyd Whaley
6/8/2018
MYUNG JAE OH
12/19/2017
Yuliyan Filipov
7/7/2015
I was considering buying this Hebrew Grammar from Logos, yet on amazon they have an edition of the same grammar that's from 2011, vs Logos' 2006 and the one on amazon has 832 pages vs. the 772 of this electronic edition. I wonder, if Logos plans to update their edition anytime soon?John Goodman
7/23/2014
I've used this as a reference grammar and found it very helpful. I think it could be easier reading in places but mostly it is clear and has excellent detail.
Anthony Hebert
5/17/2014
