What's Included?
In addition to the textbook itself, the Logos Bible Software edition includes the answer book containing a key to all exercises in the textbook, and the companion audio set (listen to samples!). The list price for these two additional items equals that of the textbook itself. This is a huge addition to the value of the product! (Note: all items have been digitized and ship on a single CD-ROM for use in your computer.)
The Answer Book (76 pages) was prepared to make The First Hebrew Primer the most effective teaching tool possible. Beneficial to students who are using the Primer in classes, these answers are indispensable for students working alone. All students should work through exercises independently and refer to this guide to check their answers and correct any errors. The Logos edition incorporates hyperlinks from the exercise directly to the answer key. So you will not see the answers until you click the link and jump to them.
The First Hebrew Primer Companion Audio CD Set ensures accurate Hebrew pronunciation. The audio begins with the Aleph-bet, and continues with all oral reviews, new vocabulary, Tall Tales, Biblical selections, and the Book of Ruth. Sephardic pronunciation is used throughout. The original CD set contains 9 compact discs that can be played in a CD player; the Logos edition compresses the audio for playback on the computer. You can launch the audio from links within the textbook to reinforce your learning and reap the benefits of combined visual and auditory learning!
- Title: The First Hebrew Primer: The Adult Beginner's Path to Biblical Hebrew
- Authors: Ethelyn Simon, Irene Resnikoff, and Linda Motzkin
- Publisher: EKS Publishing Company
- Edition: Third (revised), February 2000
- Pages: 414 (+ 76 pages for Primer Answer Book)
NOTE: The Logos Bible Software edition of these materials is all digital, for use on your computer within Libronix DLS. There are no print books included.
How Does It Help Me Learn?
The goal of the Primer is to teach students to read and understand biblical Hebrew as quickly as possible; therefore, the lessons emphasize recognition and translation—not memorization. The thirty lessons incorporate:
- Verb, grammar, and spelling charts
- Vocabulary lists
- Oral reviews
- Exercises
- Stories
- Biblical quotes
- Book of Ruth
The story behind this primer shows just how much it is tailored for the true novice. According to the publisher's website,
"EKS Publishing was born of one woman's desire to learn Biblical Hebrew. In 1976, Ethelyn Kaplan Simon (EKS) retired from the company she founded and managed for thirty years and directed her attentions to mastering Hebrew. She studied with several educators and rabbis, but was frustrated that most Hebrew materials were designed either for children or for advanced students with linguistic expertise. Unable to find materials appropriate for the adult beginner, she began to design a book that would encourage the novice. Mrs. Simon emphasized simplicity, often replacing traditional linguistic jargon with descriptive terms. She recognized that learning a new language is best accomplished with materials that take a light-hearted approach and have an easy-to-read format."
The First Hebrew Primer aims to make learning Hebrew a rewarding, enjoyable experience, rather than a frustrating exercise. Or as one Amazon reviewer (a college Hebrew instructor) called it: "Biblical Hebrew without tears."
This instructor continued, "Students who use this book (and it is used in many seminaries, but not enough) will learn easily and without pain...With every lesson the Hebrew Bible opens wider. In ten class periods my class was reading through Genesis, haltingly, but recognizing 50% to 75% of the words. By semester's end...reading just about anything with the help of a dictionary here and there."
The Primer helps the student build vocabulary and confidence through reading familiar folk tales (introduced in chapter 8) and the book of Ruth (starting in chapter 10). Each lesson builds on the last, and each begins with an oral review of previous material. The final chapter includes a "how to" on using the BDB lexicon.
Praise for the Print Edition
The First Hebrew Primer is an excellent text for introducing Biblical Hebrew to college students. It is very practical and well oriented towards the goal of having the student begin reading the Hebrew Bible as quickly as possible. Many of our students go on to take more Hebrew in graduate school, and they invariably express appreciation for the foundation they have received as a result of their work in this book.
—Michael A. Harbin, Taylor University
I have found the Primer to be an effective and inviting tool for helping students fall in love with Biblical Hebrew. It assists students to become confident in reading and translating Hebrew so that further work—linguistic, historical, and exegetical—will not be hindered by a lack of fluidity in handling the texts of Scripture.
—Joel H. Hunt, Fuller Theological Seminary
I love teaching with the Primer, and my students love learning from it. It is wonderful how the text has been able to capture what is usually so complicated and make it so simple.
—Jana L. De Benedetti, Louisiana State University, Shreveport, and Agudath Achim Synagogue
I have used the The First Hebrew Primer as a student and now as a teacher and would recommend its use for anyone serious about learning the Hebrew language. This Primer has stood the test of time and continues to be a valuable learning tool.
—Yeshiva Instructor, Washington
I've been so pleased using the Primer with our students at the seminary. The layout and presentation of the material is ideal for those who do not have English as their first language. The folktales within the book have been a real hit. The Primer has been a great success here!
—Seminary Instructor, Papua New Guinea
The present volume has some strengths. It gets the student involved in reading significant sections of biblical Hebrew texts as well as folk tales written in Hebrew for the purpose of grammar. It also provides fairly extensive exercises, a mixture of examples that focus on a particular grammatical point and others that provide a clause or structure to translate. Finally, it gives some attention to verb and preposition collocations, an issue too many grammars avoid.
—Michael A. Grisanti, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2002
From the Preface to the Print Edition
The First Hebrew Primer is a simple, straightforward guide to Biblical Hebrew. Thirty lessons provide enough information and practice to enable you, with the aid of a Hebrew-English dictionary, to understand most biblical texts.The goal of the Primer is to teach students to read and understand Biblical Hebrew as quickly as possible; therefore, the lessons emphasize recognition and translation—not memorization.
We present vocabulary based upon frequency in the Hebrew Bible and have carefully controlled the number of words introduced. Wherever possible, the most common Hebrew words are taught in early chapters. By the end of the Primer, you will have learned most words that occur two hundred or more times in the Bible. This controlled vocabulary should make the transition to reading biblical text as easy as possible.
Several special features in the Primer are worth noting. We introduce the first in a series of Tall Tales in chapter 8. These stories are familiar folktales translated into Biblical Hebrew. The stories reinforce the grammar and vocabulary taught in each lesson and provide the student with an early opportunity to read large passages of text. The Primer also presents an adapted version of the Book of Ruth as a series of guided readings. These readings become more complex as the student’s skills develop. Spelling charts in the back of the book give conjugated forms of common Hebrew words that allow students to read and write Biblical Hebrew.
To make learning easier, we sometimes use our own terms for grammatical concepts. The chart on page 368 lists the traditional English and Hebrew names for EKS terminology. We also have been careful to present those forms that are the most common in the Hebrew Bible; as a result, you will study and practice many more masculine forms than feminine ones. Some forms are so rare that we have left them out of exercises and spelling charts altogether.
More information on this resource and others like it can be found in the Product Guide for Hebrew Texts and Tools
Want a FREE Vocabulary List for this resource?
If you own this book you can download a pre-made Vocabulary List. Right-click here and choose Save As or Save Target As... Save the file to My Documents\Libronix DLS\VocabularyLists. If you don't have this folder, create it. The Vocabulary List will then be available in Libronix by selecting File | Open | Vocabulary List.
Please note that you need the Original Languages addin in order to use the Vocabulary List. For more information about this tool visit Vocabulary Lists and Flashcards.
Sample Audio & Screenshots
Click the links below to hear samples of the audio tracks that accompany each lesson. The samples are in MP3 format and are the same files you will hear in the Logos edition. Screenshots show the accompanying textbook pages.
Sample 1: audio | screenshot
Sample 2: audio | screenshot
Sample 3: audio | screenshot
Sample Page Scans from the Textbook Print Edition