This innovative textbook by two leading experts in Biblical Hebrew combines the best of traditional grammars, new insights into Hebrew linguistics, and a creative pedagogical approach. The material has been field tested and refined for more than a decade by the authors, who are actively engaged in Biblical Hebrew discussions and research. The book includes fifty brief grammar lessons with accompanying workbook-style exercises, appendixes providing more detailed explanations, and a full-color reader--bound at the back of the book for right-to-left reading--that incorporates comics, line drawings, and numerous exercises, all in Hebrew. This work offers a realistic approach to beginning Hebrew, helping students comprehend texts without overloading them with too much information, and it can be adapted to either one-semester or full-year courses. An accompanying website through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources offers helpful resources for students and professors. Resources for students include flash cards and audio files. Resources for professors include sample quizzes, sample exams, sample lesson plans, vocabulary cards, and a full-color printed instructor's manual.

In this book John Cook interacts with the range of approaches to the perennial questions on the Biblical Hebrew verb in a fair-minded approach. Some of his answers may appear deceptively traditional, such as his perfective-imperfective identification of the qatal-yiqtol opposition. However, his approach is distinguished from the traditional approaches by its modern linguistic foundation. One distinguishing sign is his employment of the phrase "aspect prominent" to describe the Biblical Hebrew verbal system. As with almost any of the world's verbal systems, this aspect-prominent system can express a wide range of aspectual, tensed, and modal meanings. In chap. 3, he argues that each of the forms can be semantically identified with a general meaning and that the expressions of specific aspectual, tensed, and modal meanings by each form are explicable with reference to its general meaning. After a decade of research and creative thinking, the author has come to frame his discussion not with the central question of "Tense or Aspect?" but with the question "What is the range of meaning for a given form, and what sort of contextual factors (syntagm, discourse, etc.) help us to understand this range in relation to a general meaning for the form?" In chap. 4 Cook addresses long-standing issues involving interaction between the semantics of verbal forms and their discourse pragmatic functions. He also proposes a theory of discourse modes for Biblical Hebrew. These discourse modes account for various temporal relationships that are found among successive clauses in Biblical Hebrew. Cook's work addresses old questions with a fresh approach that is sure to provoke dialogue and new research.

In this volume, Robert D. Holmstedt, John A. Cook, and Phillip S. Marshall provide a foundational analysis of the Hebrew text of Qoheleth. Distinguished by the detailed yet comprehensive attention paid to the Hebrew text, Qoheleth is a convenient pedagogical and reference tool that explains the form and syntax of the biblical text, offers guidance for deciding between competing semantic analyses, engages important text-critical debates, and addresses questions relating to the Hebrew text that are frequently overlooked or ignored by standard commentaries. Beyond serving as a succinct and accessible analytic key, Qoheleth also reflects the most recent advances in scholarship on Hebrew grammar and linguistics. By filling the gap between popular and technical commentaries, the handbook becomes an indispensable tool for anyone committed to a deep reading of the biblical text.