A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (review)

Hebrew Studies 46 (2005) 385 Reviews REVIEWS A GUIDE TO BIBLICAL HEBREW SYNTAX. By Bill T. Arnold and John H.Choi. Pp. xii + 228. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. Cloth, $45.00. Paper, $16.00. This “guide” to Biblical Hebrew syntax is aimed at beginning and intermediate students of the ancient language. Since introductory courses in Biblical Hebrew seldom include overviews of syntax, there is—according to Arnold and Choi (p. xi)—a huge gap between students’ understanding of syntax and current scholarly insights in this regard conveyed in more exhaustive Biblical Hebrew reference grammars. The purpose of this guide, they state, is “to bridge the gap, as best we can, between our students and the best of current research on Biblical Hebrew syntax” (p. xi). The authors acknowledge their indebtness to the grammars of Waltke and O’Connor (An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1990), Joüon-Muraoka (A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1993), and Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley (Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon, 1910). They state that to some degree they also consulted the grammars of Van der Merwe, Naudé, and Kroeze (A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999) and of Meyer (Hebrew Grammar, Winona Lake: Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1993). Significant is their remark in the preface: “Through interaction with these and other sources of scholarship, we feel that we have, at several points, introduced innovations in our explanations of Biblical Hebrew syntax in an attempt to refine the way we read and interpret the Bible today” (p. xii). After a brief introduction, the macrostructure of the grammar is organized around four topics: (1) nouns, (2) verbs, (3) particles, and (4) clauses and sentences. The section on the nouns is organized around the headings: nominative, genitive, accusative, apposition, adjectives, determination, and numerals; the section on the verbs around the notions: stem, aspect, modals, nonfinites, and verbal sequences; the section on particles around the classes: prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, particles of existence/nonexistence, and the particles hnh and hnhw; and the section on clauses and sentences around the following: nominal and verbal clauses, subordinate clauses, and additional sentence types. Two appendixes are included explaining the semantics of the Biblical Hebrew stems. In a relatively long glossary (12 pages) the linguistic terminology that is used in the book is explained with cross-references to the relevant paragraphs. A subject and a scripture index conclude the book. A welcome feature of the grammar is that each of the above-mentioned major sections, as well as the sub-divisions, is introduced with brief discussions of the nature, definitions, and explanations of the labels used. Where the Hebrew Studies 46 (2005) 386 Reviews authors consider it relevant, they refer to alternative categories and/or labels that students may encounter, in particular in other reference grammars. I find the outlay of the text good with sufficient white space. Presenting some of the examples from the Hebrew Bible on a new line and others within paragraphs, however, I find unfortunate. It breaks up a reader’s pattern of finding the examples. In terms of its contribution to Biblical Hebrew grammatology, I find Arnold and Choi’s guide disappointing. Some of the categories they use and/ or distinguish appear to be influenced by entrenched teaching traditions rather than to be based on sound linguistic reasoning. The authors use terms derived from morphological case marking (namely, nominative, genitive, accusative) to refer to the “syntactic functions” (p. 5) of nouns. Although admittedly Hebrew had case vowels at an earlier stage of the language, the use of case to refer to syntactic function is highly problematic. To take one example, in a language with three cases the object of a transitive verb will ordinarily be marked with the accusative case. However, in Biblical Hebrew, which does not have morphological case, the object of a verb may be introduced with a preposition (historically taking the genitive case) or simply be a bare noun phrase (historically taking the genitive case). It is both more linguistically accurate and clearer for students if a grammar maintains a distinction between morphological marking and syntactic function. Other categories they distinguish are vague, for example, their use...