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 | | A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament: Based upon the Lexical Work of Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner by William Lee Holladay ISBN-10: 9780802834133 ISBN-10: 0-8028-3413-2 ISBN-13: 9780802834133 ISBN-13: 978-0-8028-3413-3 Hardcover 1972-05 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Based on the First, Second, and Third Editions of the Koehler-Baumgartner Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, this abridgment-provides everything the student needs to translate an Old Testament passage. | ||
Reviews | ||
My personal choice This review is for 4 Hebrew lexicons in common use: Brown-Driver-Briggs, Koehler-Baumgartner, Holladay, and Langenscheidt. The sizeable Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon is a development of Gesenius' historic work, and a long-time standard in English speaking countries. However, it has become dated, and now is used mostly because Hendrickson put out a cheaply constructed version keyed to Strong's concordance. Oxford's Clarendon Press edition is superior if you are required to get BDB. In addition, organizing entries by verbal root rather than alphabetically makes it difficult to use "BDB" for those without intimate knowledge of Hebrew. Fortunately, there is an alternative. The Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon is superb and thorough, and based on the latest Hebrew and Aramaic scholarship. The authors also took into account cognates from Ugaritic and Akkadian, so users of this massive work have a goldmine of information to draw from. By massive, I mean it is over 2000 pages in 2 large volumes. This plus its $190 asking price means it might be better to let the university or seminary library bear the brunt of purchasing and housing it unless you are an Old Testament specialist. Most readers will be best served by the work of William Holladay, a reasonably sized 426 pp lexicon based on the latest scholarship. Holladay abridged K-B by removing bibliographic references and other information most needed by specialists. It is well organized (alphabetically), and the font is clear. Entries also have references (not exhaustive) to use within the Old Testament, meaning it can be used as a poor man's OT concordance. While Holladay is manageably sized enough (9.75" x 6.875" x 1.25") to be pleasant to read and easily portable in a bookbag, it is not the smallest resource available. Some may be tempted to go a step further for the ultimate in compactness with the Langenscheidt pocket dictionary. This item is 6" x 4" x 1" and quite lightweight - in its 1959 iteration anyway. Its definitions are limited in scope and scholarly foundation, but still, what else fits in your coat pocket? My overall recommendation: Holladay for everyone, supplemented by Koehler-Baumgartner for those who need and can afford it. BDB: 3 stars K-B: 5 stars Holladay: 5 stars Langenscheidt: 4 stars | ||
Very good. Should have used Hebrew alphabet in body of entries. I have used Holladay for several years. This lexicon is definitely easier for quick reference than the old standard, Brown-Driver-Briggs. It is convenient to take to class or to use at home when reading the Hebrew Scriptures. A particularly handy feature are the lists of the forms of each verb that occur in the Hebrew text, which appear at the beginning of each verb entry. The only feature that I dislike is that Holladay chose to use transliteration for the Hebrew words within the entries. I realize that he was trying to save space, but I would have preferred Hebrew rather than romanization for the purpose. As it is, one's mind has to continually switch back and forth between the familiar Hebrew alphabet and the alien romanized forms. | ||
Love it This book delivers what it promises; "an up-to-date working tool of modest price and compass for the student of biblical Hebrew and Aramaic." The book quality is superb and two years on is still in excellent condition considered the amount of use. The print quality is excellent and very usable. The Hebrew words are bolded, including their various forms. The basic meaning of each word is also bolded. This makes looking up words and their meanings especially efficient. I've found this excellent for translating biblical texts. One of the most useful features is that each Hebrew word includes its various forms. As a beginner I've found this useful when parsing Hebrew text. Proper names do not have their English rendering included. This has caused me to have to refer back to my BDB occasionally. This has been the one major flaw I've found in this work. There are transliterations included for specific usages of the Hebrew words. I found this feature a bit annoying sometimes. I would have found the actual Hebrew text to be much more useful. This is an ideal book for use in translating biblical texts and its size and format make it extremely usable. However, I would not recommend it for in depth word studies or for those who do not read Hebrew. | ||
BEWARE to those who don't already know Hebrew! I had high hopes that A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (CHALOT) would be a helpful Bible study tool. However, for me, this book is practically useless. The words are in order according to the Hebrew alphabet. The words are written in Hebrew ONLY. It's so hard to find a word because I don't recognize the Hebrew alphabet. I search and search just trying to find the word that I'm looking for. Once I find a word, the definition isn't any clearer or more detailed than the definition in Abingdon's Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (ASECB) -- usually, it's less detailed. Also, CHALOT (this book being reviewed) only gives a few examples of scriptures; I had hoped for all listings of where the word may be scripturally found. I find myself referring back to the ASECB to find all the word's listings (for comparison of meaning). If you don't already read and write Hebrew, I propose that you will find this book as frustrating as I do. It is not handy for people who don't read and write Hebrew. To me, the definitions are not worth the effort and time spent searching for them. For English-speaking Bible students, I still haven't found any better study tools than the ASECB (mentioned above) and The Interlinear Bible-Hebrew, Greek, English (IB). If you're interested in researching the earliest-known languages of the Bible, the use of these two books, together, is very thorough (exhaustive) and well organized for EASY reference. I don't know what the price differences are between the CHALOT and the ASECB (to be used with the IB), but if you're serious about Bible study and appreciate excellent referencing, the ASECB and IB are worth the money. As for the CHALOT, I regret the money that I spent for it. I feel the on-line customer reviews that I read before buying this book were misleading. | ||
Warning: Not by chapter This is a "lexicon" due to its references, but it's organized like a dictionary. If you're translating the Hebrew Bible, this is an awesome resource as a Biblical dictionary, but I thought I'd let y'all know that it's very different from the Armstrong Lexicon which organizes by chapter, in order. Thus, if you're working through a few chapters of Bible, in a class or on one's own, then the Armstrong will list the infrequently-used words (i.e. "the hard words!") in order by chapter, so you don't have to look up the words in a dictionary like this one. In other words, I use both this and the Armstrong. The Holladay I use as a dictionary for a few words here and there, but when working through chapters of Hebrew Bible, the Armstrong Lexicon is more of a time-saving cheat sheet. | ||