HOW BIBLICAL LANGUAGES WORK by Peter James Silzer and Thomas John Finley, Kregel Publication, Grand Rapids, MI, 2004.
A LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACH TO TEACH CLASSICAL STYLES
How Biblical Languages Work is a very interesting book that offers a model for anyone who wishes to prepare a textbook to teach how classical styles of Indian languages work. In order to spread the knowledge of the classical styles of language that we find in Sanskrit and languages like Tamil, we really need to develop learner-centered materials that teach such styles. This book shows us the way, by combining essential elements of the languages to be taught with a subtle introduction and use of basic linguistic concepts that a learner needs to have while learning classical languages.
BIBLICAL LANGUAGES
Written by two eminent linguists who teach Hebrew and Greek, this book is a fine blend of linguistic information, learning aids, and exercises. Professors Peter Silzer and Thomas Finley are life long students of Hebrew and Greek. The term biblical languages refer to that variety of tongues in which the Bible was originally written. The Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language, whereas the New Testament was written in popular and common Greek used for commerce and politics. The Old Testament also contains portions in Aramaic dialect. Styles of both these languages are not spoken now, but a clear interpretation of the Bible depends on the understanding of these styles.
CONTENTS OF THE BOOK
The book is presented in eight chapters, well written with examples and exercises. I give below the list of contents that explains the depth of presentation:
1. The Big Picture: An Overview of How Language Works
- Five Key Characteristics of Language
- Three Essential Ways to Look at Language
- How Language and Culture Relate
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- Internet Resources
- Exercises
2. Can You Spell That? Reading and Writing
- How Writing Works
- Three types of Writing Systems
- The Sounds of Language
- The Sounds of Hebrew
- The Sounds of Greek
- The Semitic Origin of the Greek and English Alphabets
- The Shapes of Hebrew, Greek, and English Letters
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- Internet Resources
- Exercises
3. Putting It into Words: How Words Are Made
- How We Can Understand Words
- How We Classify Morphemes
- How Morphemes Add Meaning
- Affixes That Add Grammatical Information to a Word
- Questions That Languages Ask About Nouns and Pronouns
- Questions That Languages Ask About Verbs
- Hebrew Morphology
- Comparing Hebrew, Greek, and English Morphology
- Putting Inflection and Derivation Together
- Morphemes with More Than One Form
- Classifying Languages
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- For Further Study
- Exercises
4. Putting Words Together: Phrases and Clauses
- Putting Words in Groups
- Analyzing Phrases and Clauses
- Picturing Phrases and Clauses
- Forming Phrases
- Classifying Languages by Word Order
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- Exercises
5. Telling Stories and Writing Letters: Understanding Discourse
- Discourse Patterns
- Discourse Types
- Discourse Tools
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- Exercises
6. What Do You Mean? It's Just Semantics
- What Do You Mean by Semantics?
- How Can a Word Have More Than One Meaning?
- How Are Words Related?
- What About Figurative Language?
- When Is Language Ambiguous?
- How Is Sentence Like a Play?
- How Does Context Relate to Language?
- How Do We Get Things Done with Language?
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- Internet Resources
- Exercises
7. Variety Is the Spice of Life: Dialects and Change
- Why Do People Speak Differently?
- Why Do Languages Change?
- How Do We Know When Languages Are Related?
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- Internet Resources
- Exercises
8. Practical Ways to Study (and Learn) the Biblical Languages
- Separating the Children from the Adults
- Are You Motivated? Yes!
- How Your Personality Type Affects Learning
- Seeing, Hearing, and Doing
- Setting Goals in Language Learning
- How Can I Learn All Those Words?
- Hints for Learning Hebrew Vocabulary
- Hints for Learning Greek Vocabulary
- Summary and Preview
- For Further Study
- Internet Resources
Appendix: Glossary of Linguistic Terms
- Definition
- For Further Study
- Internet Resources
Reference
- References to Linguistics in General
- References to Linguistics and the Bible
- References to New Testament Greek
- References to Biblical Hebrew
GOALS ACHIEVED!
As I see it, the aim of the book appears to be three-fold: first to motivate the learner and to assure him or her that learning a classical language is not difficult at all, and that learning a classical language is a rewarding experience. This is accomplished by giving examples from the languages already known to the learner and by giving simple examples from the target languages.
A second aim appears to be a description of the intricacies of the target languages in simple terms with exercises and tools for further study. The book does not aim to teach the target languages in the traditional sense, but aims at preparing a solid and valuable ground for immersing oneself into a detailed textbook. The learner becomes more confident when he or she deals with the exercises given, and focuses on the characteristics of the target languages presented in simple terms.
The third aim is to use, in a very subtle and easy manner, the tools of linguistic description to make the learners understand how language in general and how the target languages in particular work. Adults want to know how things work; they want to place things they come across into some manageable order for memory and easy access. The distinguished professors carefully identify the linguistic processes and patterns of the biblical languages and present them in a legible manner for the benefit of the learners.
A very valuable book, indeed!
M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Bethany College of Missions
Bloomington, MN 55438, USA. thirumalai@mn.rr.com
