Review of A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible

Last updated on: June 28, 2010 at 10:05 am by James F. McGrath

Review of A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible 2010-06-28T10:05:00-04:00 James F. McGrath

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I am really grateful to have received a gratis review copy of A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible. This is an incredibly useful resource for those who want a printed Protestant Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, in the original languages and in a single volume. It was in fact produced simply by combining in a single leather-bound volume the two previously separately-published Reader’s Hebrew Bible and Reader’s Greek New Testament. Since Hebrew is read from right to left and Greek from left to right, each stands at the “front” of the volume, on opposite ends.

The Greek text is that adopted by the translators of the New International Version. Places where this differs from the UBS critical edition are noted. The Hebrew text is that of the Leningrad Codex.

Both parts of the volume share one feature in common: using numbered footnotes, they provide definitions for words that occur relatively infrequently (in the case of the Hebrew Bible less than 100 times, in the case of the New Testament less than 30 times). At the end of each testament, a glossary with more frequently-occurring words can be found.

The introduction to the New Testament quantifies why a Bible like this is so helpful to those seeking to improve their grasp of Biblical languages by using them to actually read.

Let us assume that a student has decided to read through the Greek New Testament over the course of a year. In order to accomplish this goal, the student will have to read about 22 verses each day. If each verse contains 3.5 unfamiliar words, then the student will have to consult a lexicon, on average, 77 times per day. If we assume this reader is very quick with a lexicon, and can look up each word in 30 seconds (much faster than most people could), the reader will spend more than 38 minutes every day looking up words. (p.8)

When you add puzzling over the precise form of the word, and time lost as one has to refind their place after consulting a lexicon, it becomes clear why the most beneficial thing a student of New Testament Greek can do once they are able to – namely read the New Testament – can also be extremely frustrating. I discovered this myself as a student (although not quanitified so precisely as in the quotation above), and was fortunate enough to have been introduced to Sakae Kubo’s Reader’s Lexicon, which was a great help, but still represented an additional volume to carry. And so having a comparable resource for both testaments, combined with the Bible itself in a single volume, will be much preferable for most potential readers. And that is what A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible offers.

In addition to the difference in the word frequency which determines whether a word goes in a footnote or in the glossary at the back, some other differences can be noticed between the Old and New Testament sections, since they were created and originally published independently of one another. A feature in the Old Testament that is likely to be noticed particularly quickly is the printing of less common proper nouns in the Hebrew text in gray rather than black. While this is definitely a useful feature (what student of a new language that does not differentiate proper nouns with capital letters has not spent time on occasion puzzling over a word, only to realize that it is a name?), the grey color is not particularly aesthetically pleasant – it looks as though some words had simply been printed more faintly by accident. I cannot think of a better option – it certainly was better to use grey than to print them in some other color – but even though I am not able to think of a better procedure myself, every time I see a faint grey name in the text, I wish that some other method could be found – even if only to print names slightly darker*.* But since this feature is a helpful one, and I cannot think of a better alternative, I really ought not to complain!

Here’s a sample that Stephen Cook posted:

For those doing advanced research, being able to consult a more detailed critical apparatus with information on manuscript variations is essential. And so a volume like this one cannot substitute for standard research tools, and it does not pretend to (p.xvii). But it is an incredibly useful resource for two other situations: First, for those who are learning the Biblical languages and have reached a stage where they are ready to read the text at length, and solidify their knowledge of the basics and expand their vocabulary through reading, this Bible will be extremely helpful. Alternatives – for instance, using Bible software that would allow one to look up words conveniently – would be much more tiring on the eyes, and that is an important consideration when one thinks of how much time a student is likely to need to spend reading Biblical texts. Second, for those who have a good basic grasp of Hebrew and Greek and who attend church, this Bible provides one in the original languages that can be taken to church and used in that context.

The definitions provided are for the most part straightforward and helpful. I was struck, however, by a couple of instances that happened to come up in readings in church recently. First, the inclusion of “homosexual” as a definition for malakos in Luke 7:25, seems at best a waste of space in this particular instance (I doubt anyone went into the wilderness expecting to see someone dressed in “homosexual clothing”!). A reader’s text needs to provided glosses on words to help readers, and while there may be some benefit to indicating other possible meanings of a word which are not relevant in the immediate context, one should not extend the list unnecessarily, particularly to the point of including meanings that are disputed even in other passages. Second, in John 1:5 an atypically long list of possible meanings is given for καταλαμβάνω, yet “I understand” and/or “I comprehend” are not included, even though these are meanings of the verb which are frequently highlighted in this context by translators and commentators.

There is a sample of the Greek text on the Koinonia blog (provided as a pdf):

All of the aforementioned points are minor, and it is not as though one could find another Bible which offers what this one does, only better, or as though one could use a translation and bypass the minor drawbacks and issues mentioned here. I thus hope that none of the disclaimers or qualifications above will in any way detract from my great appreciation for this Bible. This is a great Bible for students, but also for those who know Biblical languages well and want a complete Bible (apart from the Apocrypha) in the original languages. And so I highly recommend A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible!

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