Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar
Evaluation of the Accordance Version
J.P. Kang, Ph.D.
Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar
The study of Hebrew in the modern era owes an incalculable debt to Wilhelm Gesenius (1786–1842): the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon (1906) is based on his Thesaurus, and scholars continue to cite the comprehensive and authoritative presentation of his Grammar (1910).
All of the attributes that make the print edition of the grammar indispensable are enhanced in the Accordance module, which features:
- quick lookup via the familiar section-letter reference scheme (e.g. 75h), and additionally permits searches for scripture references, Hebrew and Greek content, and even transliteration,
- useful typographical features: the type size distinction between primary and secondary discussion has been preserved, scripture references have been reformatted (e.g. Ec I17 becomes Ec 1:17), and the occasional Arabic or Syriac script citations have been transliterated,
- scans of numerous passages whose accuracy depends on exact reproduction of the typeset page: for example, occurrences of Babylonian punctuation (the footnote to § 8g), the table of vowel classes (§ 9t), and the verbal paradigms (A–Q),
- the useful Table of Alphabets script chart and facsimile of the Siloam Inscription, carefully scanned,
- the Index of Subjects, with corrections, and
- support for highlighting (new to Accordance 7)
In short, we are confident this is the most useful edition of Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar—in almost two hundred years!*
* The first German edition appeared in 1813.
"This is the standard reference grammar for most serious students of Hebrew in the English-speaking world; it has been so for eighty years and looks like continuing for many more."
—James Barr (JBL 101 [Mar 1982]: 138)
". . . every advanced student of the Hebrew text needs to have at hand the grammar of Gesenius, Kautzsch, and Cowley to check a variety of details in an ample and well-informed framework."
—Preface to An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax,
by B. K. Waltke & M. O'Connor (1990)
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