English–Hebrew Index; Word Frequency Table (The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume IX | DCH)
Overview
In the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew | DCH I–VIII, each volume had its own English–Hebrew Index, but this volume presents a much improved gathering together of all those indexes. The Index here contains every word used as a translation (gloss) in the Dictionary, that is, all the words printed in bold. In addition—a feature not seen before in Hebrew dictionaries—beneath each listed word are noted all the Hebrew words it translates, together with the volume and page reference of the relevant article.
No serious study of the Hebrew text of the Bible, or indeed any other ancient Hebrew text, can properly be done without reference to DCH. Indeed, the first eight volumes would have been enough. But the English–Hebrew Index provides us with an important additional lexical tool: for example, the seven words listed for ‘truth’, eight for ‘law’, twelve for ‘save’ and the like will help us to identify semantic fields and achieve greater precision in defining the meaning of particular words.
The second element in this volume is the Word Frequency Table. This is a combination of the Word Frequency Tables in the various volumes of DCH. There, the lists of word frequencies were arranged under each letter of the alphabet. In the present publication, all the words in the Dictionary are combined in a single list arranged in order of frequency of occurrence. Unlike all previous lists of occurrences of Hebrew words, the present list includes the occurrences not only in the Hebrew Bible but also in the whole scope of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, which is to say, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Inscriptions as well as the Hebrew Bible itself. For each word there is listed the number of occurrences in each of those four corpora, and the ranking position of a given word is determined by the total number of occurrences in all the classical Hebrew texts combined.
This resource is no longer available. Check out the updated collection Dictionary of Classical Hebrew | DCH (9 vols.).
- Brings together a comprehensive index to volumes 1-8 of the Cline's Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
- Provides word frequency tables for Ancient Hebrew vocabulary
- Includes Hebrew words outside the biblical Hebrew corpus
The new index highlights the fact that, however large the corpus is, with the addition of ancient inscriptions, Ben Sira and the Dead Sea Scrolls, it remains an unnatural, arbitrary cross-section of the language containing, for instance, two words for ‘sneeze’ and no word for ‘cough’ or ‘yawn’, seven for ‘lion’, ten for ‘owl’ but no word at all for ‘cat’.
—John F.A. Sawyer, Society for Old Testament Study Book List.
- Title: The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, IX: English–Hebrew Index; Word Frequency Table
- Author: David J. A. Clines
- Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix
- Publication Date: 2016
- Pages: 834
- Resource Type: Index
- Topic: Hebrew Lexicography
David J. A. Clines concentrated his studies on Hebrew lexicography and contemporary literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible. He studied classical languages in Sydney, Semitic Languages in Cambridge, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Amsterdam.
Clines was emeritus professor of biblical studies at the University of Sheffield where he previously served as head of the department for seven years. Clines also served as president of the Society for Old Testament Study, publisher and director at Sheffield Academic Press for 25 years, and president of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Clines authored and edited several publications including Interested Parties: The Ideology of Writers and Readers of the Hebrew Bible, On the Way to Postmodern, Esther Scroll: The Story of the Story, and The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew.
Reviews
3 ratings
SEONGJAE YEO
10/5/2019
Richard Keane
7/27/2019
Memphis D.Tufts
7/15/2019
Stephanus Karnadhi
7/4/2019
Not a review: I just get the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (8 vols) in Academic Standard Base Package. A bit disappointed that this index is not in the package. I don't mind buying this separately, but is hopeful that the price would be discounted more substantially, maybe the same discount as the Academic Standard Package.
