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| How Biblical Languages Work: A Student's Guide to Learning Hebrew and Greek | 
 enlarge | Authors: Peter James Silzer, Thomas John Finley
Publisher: Kregel Academic & Professional
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $12.00 (60%)
Buy New/Used from $6.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  (6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 180329
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0825426448
Dewey Decimal Number: 492.482421
EAN: 9780825426445
ASIN: 0825426448
Publication Date: January 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A practical and easy-to-understand guide to the logical structure of both Hebrew and Greek. Ideal for biblical language students. (20070101)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A very welcome resource February 14, 2008
It is always great to have additional resources for learning Biblical Hebrew and Greek beyond the standard grammar books or college textbooks. This book is such a resource.
The book's greatest strengths are the exposition of differences between modern languages and Biblical languages. Not just with respect to the alphabet, but more importantly from the word order and semantics points of view. Its sections on discourse, and dialects and changes and relations of languages are very helpful too. The same goes for the chapter covering practical ways to study Biblical languages. It also provides glossary of linguistic terms and a list of Internet resources for studying Biblical languages.
Truly a valuable resource for both student and teacher. Highly recommended.
 A Guide ONLY June 19, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
How Biblical Languages Work, is a guided introduction to Greek and Hebrew. The book has some short-comings. The Hebrew and Greek alphabets were charted-out in the second chapter but never used in the book. The IPA and SBL transliterations were used, then later only SBL. The value of this book would be increased if the transliterations were coupled with the Greek or Hebrew letters throughout the book. Sounds of the characters were highlighted in the second chapter but not sufficiently. The reader is encouraged to go to services (Jewish or Greek Orthodox) to aid learning by immersion, yet the possible pronunciations they would encounter there are never covered. This book lacks examples on many topics, many examples are English words only. The tables and charts are located in odd places in relation to the written topics. The table formats, in my opinion, could have been improved for better comprehension.
This book covers areas others books do not. Topics such as language change, speech mechanisms, study strategies for individual personality types, and online resources for futher study set this book apart and make it worth the time. If you already have experience in these areas there is no need to buy this book, it doesn't teach you Hebrew or Greek, it only "guides" you in your attempts with other resources.
I found it distasteful that the authors added religiously motivated, Christian comments. Other books seem to leave religion out of the pages when learning languages. But I guess most who are willing to learn Hebrew AND Greek are Christians, not Jewish or just "curious".
 How Biblical Languages Work Silzer & Finley March 24, 2006
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Typical "American Style" textbook starting from the basics (especially viz-a-viz grammar) which took me back to Latin class 50 years ago. Lots of interest which I'm still digesting so its probably unfair to be so critical so early. Good book for the beginner.
A MUST for every language learner and teacher December 14, 2005
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
As a teacher of five languages as foreign languages and a self-taught on eleven I feel comfortable to recomend this jewel! Almost everyone of the insights I have been acquiring along years of language teaching and self-study is in it! Sure, not only students of biblical languages will profit abundantly from this work! Students of Arts will benefit from it as well, in the subject matter of Linguistics! It has even useful examples in Spanish, wich is very close to my own mother language, Portuguese! You will soon find yourself transferring learning without pain!
A new approach December 17, 2004
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
This book approaches biblical languages from a must-needed linguistic point of view. It shows how both Hebrew and Greek work in their grammar and spends more time demonstrating how the alphabets work. Probably the greatest strength of the book is the continued focus of how they work in relation to how English works. In addition, time is taken to address word order, with the nice example of the literal translation of John 3:16. As a whole, the book is well-written and full of insights that greatly enhance the study of the biblical languages.
By request of the author, here is the summary from the back of the book:
"An ideal supplement to first-year Hebrew and Greek grammars, this practical guide makes learning the biblical languages a less daunting task. By introducing students to characteristics and functions of all human languages, experienced linguists Peter James Silzer and Thomas John Finley create the basis from which to describe the major features of Hebrew and Greek: how the sounds are pronounced, how words are put together, how phrases and clauses are structured, how words convey meaning, and how languages change.
"The book includes practical exercises, a glossary of linguistic and grammatical terms widely used in standard grammars of Greek and Hebrew, and other resources for further study, including Internet sites.
Also requested was the outline of the chapters:
1. The Big Picture: An Overview of How Language Works
2. Can You Spell That? Reading and Writing
3. Putting It into Words: How Words Are Made
4. Putting Words Together: Phrases and Clauses
5. Telling Stories and Writing Letters: Understanding Discourse
6. What Do You Mean? It's Just Semantics
7. Variety Is the Spice of Life: Dialects and Change
8. Practical Ways to Study (and Learn) the Biblical Languages
-- Appendix: Glossary of Lingustic Terms
-- References
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