30 Theological librarianship • Vol. 12, No. 1 april 2019

In German, the works of Meyer and Richter are particularly noteworthy. Richter provides a solid exploration of morphology and syntax from a linguistic perspective.48 The examples in his grammar are illustrative rather than comprehensive, and the use of linguistic categories can be confusing to students less familiar with the terminology. Meyer’s Hebräische Grammatik is a shorter reference grammar than GKC (see the next paragraph), but is also clearly organized and thorough.49 Meyer makes extensive use of Arabic and Ugaritic in his work even though the primary Ugaritic references he provides are to Cyrus Gordon’s book. Despite this shortcoming, this work is a valuable reference, especially for its clear exposition and organization.

The most thorough reference grammar of the Hebrew language is Gesenius, Kautzsch, and Cowley (GKC).50 The one place where GKC is beginning to show its age is in its discussion of syntax, especially the syntax of the Hebrew verbal system. Even in issues of syntax, however, GKC is a very reliable guide to the discussion of Hebrew grammar. The ongoing value of GKC is primarily found in its discussion of Hebrew morphology. GKC is available in many editions: the cheap Dover paperback reprints the uncorrected text of 1910; the later Oxford printings have a corrected index, but the most recent printings from Oxford have a lower quality of printing, paper, and glue than the Dover edition.

Putnam has compiled a scripture index of many different Hebrew grammars.51 It is better than many of the Bible software programs that will be mentioned below because he has included numerous German sources. On the other hand, the sources he chooses to include are not always intuitive. The biggest oversight is his omission of König’s magnum opus. And because Arnold and Choi’s syntax and Van der Merwe’s grammar were both published subsequently, Putnam’s work was not able build upon them.52

Hebrew Morphology

Some of the best reference works on morphology have already been covered in the section above on comparative Semitics. One further book that deserves special mention is Fox’s Semitic Noun Patterns.53 This dissertation was written at Harvard under John Huehnergard and provides an exhaustive look at Semitic nominal patterns. It is an extremely useful source for looking into Hebrew nominal patterns, as well as for reconstructing vowels in Ugaritic and other Northwest Semitic languages. Bauer and Leander’s Historische Grammatik still provides one of the most detailed accounts of Hebrew noun patterns. In some respects, Sagarin’s Hebrew Noun Patterns provides a certain utility, but is neither a replacement for Bauer and Leander nor for Fox.54

Other aspects of Hebrew morphology can be found in journal articles and essay collections gleaned from the footnotes of Joüon and the bibliography of M. Smith.55

48 Wolfgang Richter, Grundlagen Einer Althebraischen Grammatik, Arbeiten Zu Text Und Sprache Im Alten Testament 8, 10, 13 (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1973).

49 Rudolph Meyer, Hebräische Grammatik, 3 rd (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1966).

50 Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. Emil Kautzsch, trans. Arthur Ernest Cowley, 2 nd English ed. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1910).

51 Frederic C. Putnam, A Cumulative Index to the Grammar and Syntax of Biblical Hebrew (Winona Lake, IN: Eisen-brauns, 1996).

52 The first edition of the later being Christo H. J. Van der Merwe, Jacobus A. Naudé, and Jan H. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, Biblical Languages: Hebrew 3 (S heffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999)

53 Joshua Fox, Semitic Noun Patterns (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003).

54 Bauer, Historische Grammatik Der Hebräischen Sprache Des Alten Testamentes; James L Sagarin, Hebrew Noun Patterns (Mishqalim): Morphology, Semantics, and Lexicon (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987); See also the recent essay by John Huehnergard, “Biblical Hebrew Nominal Patterns,” in Epigraphy, Philology, and the Hebrew Bible; Methodological Per-spectives on Philological and Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible in Honor of Jo Ann Hackett, Society of Biblical Litera-ture Ancient Near East Monographs 12 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2015), 25–64.

55 Mark S. Smith, “A Bibliography of Ugaritic Grammar and Biblical Hebrew Grammar in the Twentieth Century,” 2004, http://oi-archive.uchicago.edu/OI/DEPT/RA/bibs/BH-Ugaritic.html