Product Description

These four volumes in one binding include the standard Hebrew text Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, the NIV (North American version) as the English parallel text, a word for word translation for renderings of specific Hebrew words, and an introduction on how to use the Interlinear text.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63168 in Books
• Published on: 1993-11-26
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 2340 pages

From the Back Cover
Main Features:
The standard Hebrew text, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, with all necessary variant readings and major textual conjectures in footnotes
The New International Version (North American Edition) as the English parallel text, complete with special indentation and paragraphing, section headings, and footnotes
A grammatically literal, word-for-word translation with English phrases reading in normal left-to-right order for renderings of specific Hebrew words
A complete introduction explaining translation techniques and characteristics of the Hebrew and English texts
A special introduction for the general reader on how to use an interlinear for word studies and learning Hebrew

About the Author
John R. Kohlenberger III (MA, Western Seminary) is the author or coeditor of more than three dozen biblical reference books and study Bibles, including The Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament, NRSV Concordance Unabridged, Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament, Hebrew-English Concordance to the Old Testament, and the award-winning NIV Exhaustive Concordance and NIV Bible Commentary. He has taught at Multnomah Bible College and Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon.

Customer Reviews

Handy for a quick reference
I have happily used this book for years for a quick reference to the meaning of Hebrew words in a particular context. It is not intended to be, nor could it possibly be, the ultimate guide to Hebrew semantics. That is the province of the major lexica and the vast scholarly literature. But this book can be handy for students learning to read Biblical Hebrew or for those needing a quick gloss of a word in a particular context.

Great idea - outcome needs improvements
Kohlenberger's Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament was just what I was looking for when I found it. A word for word translation of the Hebrew to English of the whole OT, with a flowing NIV text on the side.

This had been perfect had it not been for two major deficiencies - Kohlenberger seems not to have taken quite all the time necessary for the word for word translation but often moves over to the less literal NIV translation. By doing that the point of it being 'interlinear' kind of gets lost. For the point is not so much which word in English matches which word in Hebrew (that is quite basic and obvious) but rather to provide with the most basic (say BDB), translation without 'cosmetics'.

Secondly, although Kohlenberger's book is divided into 4 volumes internally, the book as such is just one volume. This makes the book much too big and heavy to carry around. For anyone wanting to make notes on photocopies and not in the book, it is very hard to do so because of the size.

To conclude; the book is far from useless, it can be very useful indeed, but it would need some serious revision as suggested above to come to its full potential, which is very good. Until then students come a long way with 'just' BHS, BDB and a bible translation.

On the shelves next to my desktop
This book was a great investment: no regrets whatsoever. Let me start by saying that I know basic classical hebrew, but I am far from fluent.

What I needed was an interlinear traslation of the Hebrew Bible that I could use as a constant reference. As one of the reviewers pointed out, it is very easy to find an interlinear greek-english New Testament, but with the Chumash things are quite different. Yes, there may be a certain freedom with a few terms, but all in all it does what it is supposed to do, and it does it well.

Make yourself a favor: if you do not know it already, learn some rudimentary hebrew first, then buy this book and keep it close at hand.