Southwestern Journal of Theology
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 62, No. 1 – Fall 2019
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
By H.H. Hardy II. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019. 196 pages. Paperback, $19.99
H.H. “Chip” Hardy is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he has served for 5 years. He has published several articles and has a forthcoming book: Grammaticalization of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions. The present work, Exegetical Gems from Biblical Hebrew: A Refreshing Guide to Grammar and Interpretation, is meant to help the reader by illustrating abstract concepts with specific examples from the biblical text. The book is aimed at college and seminary students, former Hebrew students, and Hebrew instructors.
Each chapter follows a pattern of four steps. First, each chapter begins with an introduction that contains a Hebrew text (such as Jeremiah 27:10). He then presents a description of the interpretive issue, such as an infinitive construct phrase, specifically לְמַעַן הַרְחִיק (conjunctive adverb + Hifil infinitive construct). Second, Hardy gives an overview of the abstract concept, with examples from other biblical texts. In this example he illustrates several uses: nominal (Num 14:3), purpose or result ( Jer 27:6), temporal uses (here he gives several examples including Jer 27:20), explanatory uses (Gen 3:22), and illustrates how infinitive constructs may be negated with the לְבִלְתִּי particle. Third, Hardy describes how the interpretive issue in the main passage should be understood in light of his overview. In this case, Hardy opts for understanding the words לְמַעַן הַרְחִיק found within Jeremiah 27:10 as a result use. Hardy’s point is that understanding this infinitive construct to be describing a result means that Jeremiah is telling the people not to listen to other prophets because those other prophets are trying to cause harm. Fourth, each chapter concludes with a section titled “Further Reading.” In this case, Hardy suggests one article written by Douglas Gropp which deals with the infinitive construct.
The book begins with an examination of Hebrew language and literature. Then, Hardy moves to a discussion of textual criticism from Genesis 22:13, and then to word studies. After those abstract principles, he moves on to construct phrases, then definiteness, adjectives and pronouns. The next major section consists of chapters 9–20 and deals with verbs. The chapters dealing with verbs make copious use of charts to illustrate the verbal forms and their possible interpretations. When describing the syntax of verbs, Hardy’s list of resources for further reading increases in number as compared to earlier chapters. Next, he moves to a discussion of negations and prepositions, as well as a directive ה in chapters 21–24. Then Hardy discusses verbless clauses, interrogatives, and particles. This set of chapters feels out of place when compared to Waltke and O’Connor’s Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, which places these matters before their discussion of verbs. Finally, Hardy closes with three chapters that deal with clause level syntax.
Hardy’s work accomplishes its purpose. First, he does a thorough job of illustrating grammatical and syntactical issues with texts from the Hebrew Bible. For example, in chapter 14 dealing with participles, Hardy gives multiple illustrations (from Biblical Hebrew texts) of attributive, substantive and predicate participles before landing on a particular interpretation for his example in Jeremiah 20:9. Second, the scripture index at the back of the book will be useful for students who wish to quickly find sections dealing with a particular scripture. Third, some of the sections for further reading could work as a beginning bibliography for researching a topic. For instance, Hardy suggests 11 different resources for further reading in his discussion of verbal stems. Fourth, the greatest strength of this work may be that each chapter feels like a contained unit. It seems designed so that a reader could go through one chapter at a sitting, perhaps daily, for successive weeks (so as not to be overwhelmed). Pastors and teachers with only a few minutes of free time can still utilize this book.
Even so, weaknesses do exist in this work. First, its order of presentation would benefit if it followed the order of a standard Hebrew grammar textbook. In this way, the work would be more useful as an auxiliary textbook, and more helpful for students who are seeking further illustration of a concept. Second, many of the resources cited for further reading are more than 20 years old. Third, the chapters feel uneven. It may be understandable that more space is given to illustrating concepts dealing with verbs, but each individual chapter dealing with verbs is more detailed than chapters which deal with other ideas.
Because of the strengths mentioned above, I recommend this book. It is well suited for students who have finished Hebrew 1 and 2 and will have a summer break before Hebrew 3 and 4. The book is also well suited for students who are returning to the study of Biblical Hebrew after some period of time. Hebrew instructors would benefit from this book by way of utilizing the examples from the book in their classroom.
