Need help! - Secular/Non-Biblical Hebrew/Jewish Dictionaries/Lexicons.

[joelmadasu]

Anyone know of any "secular/Non-Biblical" Hebrew/Jewish dictionaries or lexicons? I would like to know how certain words, say for example - hayah, is used or understood from the secular point of view. Or is there a way to find that in the dictionaries/lexicons such as HALOT, BDB, NITDOT and so forth?

 

Please let me know.

[Michael J. Bolesta]

Accordance offers The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DHC) and the Concise DHC. In addition to the Hebrew Bible, it includes Hebrew words found in Ben Sira, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Inscriptions. Kang's Dictionary of Epigraphic Hebrew (another Accordance tool, DEH) also covers the ancient inscriptions. This could give you insight to extra-biblical usage.

[joelmadasu]

Thank you for your help! I will look into these two resources!

[Matthew Burgess]

I'm not sure what you mean by "secular/Non-Biblical." While some of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other noncanonical texts are "non-biblical," they aren't "secular" in the usual usage of this term ("belonging to the world and its affairs as distinguished from the church and religion; civil, lay, temporal"; OED). As far as I'm aware, very few if any ancient Hebrew texts would be classified in this way. One possible exception might be some inscriptions, in which case Kang's Dictionary of Epigraphic Hebrew would fit the bill (as Michael suggested).

[Timothy Jenney]

One point I ought to make here is that the two Strong's key number dictionaries (Greek and Hebrew) are anything but secular. They focus solely on the meaning of the word as used in the Bible, often emphasizing the "spiritual" or "theological" component and ignoring any other use, even if it was a common one.

[joelmadasu]

Thank you Mathew and Dr. J!