A few weeks ago I posted a notice (here) of the forthcoming A Reader's Hebrew Bible edited by A. Philip Brown II and Bryan W. Smith (due out this coming May). I've since had the opportunity to make contact with Dr Philip Brown to ask him a few questions about this project. He has graciously responded to me and has given me permission to share these Q&A's with you.A. Philip Brown II (PhD, Bob Jones University) is associate professor of Bible and Theology at God’s Bible School and College in Cincinnati, Ohio. I had the privilege of studying two semesters of Greek with Dr Brown at BJU. That was more than ten years ago, now. He displayed not only a joy for teaching the language, but also ministering the Word to us. I remember that he maintained a practice of opening each class with devotional thoughts from the Greek New Testament. I later studied Hebrew from one of his Hebrew professors, Dr Michael Barrett, whom he mentions in one of his responses.
Bryan W. Smith (PhD, Bob Jones University) is Bible integration coordinator at Bob Jones University Press. I also had the privilege of studying Greek for my first semester under the instruction of Dr Smith. I later had the privilege of getting to know Bryan better as we worshiped together at Mt Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC. I now have the privilege of worshiping with his parents and sister and keeping tabs on him through them.
I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to study the Greek language under the instruction of both of these men. I am now looking forward to benefiting from their labors in the Hebrew language. In my humble opinion, these men are first-rate students of the Scriptures and have proven themselves to be effective teachers and preachers. I have decided to post this Q&A in two parts.
A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. Italian Duo-Tone™, 1,680 pages.Q&A with Dr Philip Brown on A Reader's Hebrew Bible | Part One
QUESTION: What exactly is a reader's Bible?ANSWER: A "reader's Bible" contains a Greek text of the NT or the Hebrew text of the OT like a regular Greek or Hebrew Bible. In addition, a footnote number is placed at the end of words that occur infrequently and at the bottom of the page a gloss or "definition" for that word is given after the appropriate number. If you are familiar with Armstrong, Busby, and Carr's A Reader's Hebrew-English Lexicon of the OT, then just imagine having the glosses they provide at the bottom of each page in the Hebrew OT, and you have the idea. A Reader' s Hebrew Bible (RHB) glosses all Hebrew words that occur less than 100x, and it has a glossary in the back that gives the most common meanings of all the lemmas that occur over 100x.
Q: What led you to pursue this project?
A: 1) I love Hebrew. 2) I want to be able to read the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew/Aramaic. 3) I especially wanted to read Psalms and Proverbs in Hebrew. I am in the young-child parenting stage of my life, and I'm convinced that Proverbs is the most extensive example of biblical wisdom-training for children in Scripture. I want to get all I can out of it, and that requires intimate acquaintance with the Hebrew text. 4) I want to read extensively in Hebrew, but my limited vocabulary (perhaps most words that occur down to 50x) requires me to make frequent reference to a lexicon, which slows me down sufficiently that it is easy to get discouraged. RHB eliminates all the lexicon-time, and frees me to use my Hebrew Bible anywhere I can carry it. 5) There is no way to gain a "feel" for Hebrew except by repeated exposure to the language across the length and breadth of the OT.
Q: Will this tool be useful to preachers who want to learn Hebrew, or is a working knowledge of the language required?A: If a person has no Hebrew language training, this volume will not teach them Hebrew. Since it glosses all the words that occur less than 100x in Hebrew, a person needs a working vocabulary of at least the 500 most common words in Hebrew and he needs a minimum of a year of Hebrew grammar and syntax to be able to make sense of what he is reading.
I asked two more questions of Dr Brown which I will reserve for Part Two. If you have any further questions for either of the editors please leave a comment below or send me an email.
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Related Sources:
A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Armstrong, Terry et.al. A Reader's Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testatment, 4 volumes in one. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Kubo, Sakae. Reader's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Goodrich, J., Richard & Albert L. Lukaszewski. A Reader's Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. [CBD | Amazon]
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Related Post:
Forthcoming: A Reader's Hebrew Bible edited by Philip Brown & Bryan Smith
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