ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to Biblical Hebrew language and texts. It presents the essentials of biblical grammar and vocabulary in an engaging and systematic way. The chapter focuses on all the topics expected in a first-year Biblical Hebrew course, including the Hebrew writing system, pointing rules, nouns and adjectives, parsing, mastery of strong and weak verb paradigms and full attention to syntax. Hebrew is a fascinating language with a rich history spanning 3,000 years. It is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family, which is a large group of languages spread throughout much of northern Africa and the Middle East. The chapter discusses the active participle, a fascinating biblical form. In very general terms, the active participle means the one/ones doing an action, and depending on the context it may be translated with an English noun, adjective, or verb. The active participle undergoes pretonic reduction whenever a suffix is added.
