This is a companion volume to Greek for the Rest of Us by William D. Mounce. This book is a guide for English-only readers to understand the language of the Old Testament just enough to work with the Old Testament in more detail and to understand the scholarly literature on the Hebrew Bible. Its specific aims are to aid students to learn (1) why translations differ, (2) how to do Hebrew word studies, (3) what the basics of Hebrew exegesis are, and (4) how to read more advanced Old Testament commentaries with greater understanding. Herbrew for the Rest of Us is set up in a workbook format.

This Interpretive Lexicon has two primary functions aimed at facilitating the exegetical and translational task, namely as a lexicon and also as an interpretive handbook. First, this book lists the vast majority of Greek prepositions, adverbs, particles, relative pronouns, conjunctions, and other connecting words that are notorious for being some of the most difficult words to translate. For each word included, page references are given for several major lexical resources where the user can quickly go to examine the nuances and parameters of the word for translation options. This book will save considerable time for students of the Greek New Testament text. For example, for the Greek preposition en (occurs 2,750 times in the New Testament) covers four pages of small print in the Bauer-Danker lexicon (BDAG). But Interpretive Lexicon digests those pages in just a few lines, with the page numbers and section references given for A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition (BDAG, ’00) and 2nd Edition (BAGD, ’79), Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (Daniel B. Wallace), and Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New Testament (Murray J. Harris). Thus, the translation options can be analyzed quickly. For words with a lower frequency of occurrence and fewer translation options, this book may be sufficient in itself as a lexicon.

Secondly, these prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and connecting words in Greek, as in every language, function as explicit discourse-level markers that are essential for ascertaining the main point(s) of a passage. Therefore, this Interpretive Lexicon also evaluates the discourse function(s) of each word that is defined and catalogued, and categorizes its semantic range into defined logical relationships. This feature of the lexicon adds an interpretive element, since translation must include interpretation, at least on a linguistic level. For example, en may be translated in many ways, but those ways are categorized broadly in this book into relationships such as locative (in, among, on), means-end (with, by), grounds (because, on account of), temporal (while, at), and so on. This interpretive feature of the book is tremendously helpful for the exegetical process, allowing for the translator to closely follow the logical flow of the text with greater efficiency. This Interpretive Lexicon is thus a remarkable resource for student, pastor, and scholar alike. 

Language Reference. Middle-Eastern Studies. Syriac is the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, an important center of early Christianity in Mesopotamia. Today it is the classical tongue of the Nestorians and Chaldeans of Iran and Iraq and the liturgical language of the Jacobites of Eastern Anatolia and the Maronites of Greater Syria. Syriac literature flourished from the third century on and boasts of writers like Ephraem Syrus, Aphraates, Jacob of Sarug, John of Ephesus, Jacob of Edessa, and Barhebraeus. In this text the language is presented both in Syriac script, as it will always be seen, and in transcription, which is given so that the pronunciation of individual words and the structure of the language as a whole may be represented as clearly as possible. The majority of the sentences in the exercises-and all of the readings in the later lessons-are taken directly from the Peshitta, the standard Syriac translation of the Bible. For many of those whose interest in Syriac stems from Biblical studies or from the history of eastern Christianity, Syriac may be their first Semitic language. Every effort has been made in the presentation of the grammar to keep the Semitic structure of the language in the forefront and as clear as possible for those who have no previous experience with languages of that family. Wheeler M. Thackston is Professor of Persian and other Near East Languages at Harvard University, where he has taught Persian and Arabic for over twenty years.