Product Description

A trio of eminent Old Testament scholars—Francis Brown, R. Driver, and Charles Briggs—spent over twenty years researching, writing, and preparing The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Since it first appeared in the early part of the twentieth century, BDB has been considered the finest and most comprehensive Hebrew lexicon available to the English-speaking student. Based upon the classic work of Wilhelm Gesenius, the "father of modern Hebrew lexicography," BDB gives not only dictionary definitions for each word, but relates each word to its Old Testament usage and categorizes its nuances of meaning. BDB's exhaustive coverage of Old Testament Hebrew words, as well as its unparalleled usage of cognate languages and the wealth of background sources consulted and quoted, render BDB and invaluable resource for all students of the Bible.
—From the publisher's preface

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40960 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1216 pages

Customer Reviews

New edition less useful than previous edition.
This lexicon is probably the most commonly used tool for Hebrew students. While dated, being based on an original work from the middle of the last century, it provides in one relatively cheap volume a handy reference guide for beginning Hebrew students. One of the highlights for beginning stucents was the added index at the back of the 1979 edition which alphabetically listed Hebrew words and provided their corresponding Strong's number and the BDB page where they are discussed. For some reason the most recent edition has removed this useful feature, leaving only the Strong's numbers, which are of little practical value for a novice student trying to find a word for the first time. Serious students should be aware of D.J.A. Clines, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield, 6 volumes), and beginners could find K. Feyerabend's Langenscheidt's Pocket Hebrew Dictionary more portable and easier to use, though much less thorough.

I'm Not Sure That It Even Needs A Review
If you pulled up this title you probably have some interest in studying Bibilical Hebrew. If you plan on buying only one reference tool for those studies, this should be it. The contextual references and translations (although somewhat dated) are extensive and detailed. The The lexicography is the standard used or referenced by all of the other works in the field. The historical information is extremely useful if you plan on doing comparative work or focused eymologies.

This is the single masterwork reference for Biblical Hebrew; and, if you are a seminary student, you will probably have to buy it anyway.

an oldy, but a goodie
This is one of the foremost English-Hebrew lexicons available, but has come under scrutiny in recent years because it is quite dated (about 100 years old). It has been updated to include Strong's concordance numbers, which is quite silly to me because if one is utilizing the BDB regularly, then one's skills are probably far beyond the need for Strong's reference numbers. Despite updates like the inclusion of Strong's reference numbers, BDB, because of its advanced age, does not take into consideration insights which scholars have gleaned from Ugaritic findings and other extra-biblical texts (like the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.). One example is the lack of a "Hishtaphel" stem in the BDB, but which has been attested in Ugaritic literature-scholarship now believes the stem to exist in the Hebrew OT. Another problem beginners may have with this book is that each entry is arranged by its triumvirate root-a skill most beginners won't have until they reach the intermediate reading level. Again, a useful lexicon for age-old comprehensive analysis, but certain compunctions should be considered when in use.

I would recommend the 2-volume "student edition" of HALOT (Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament) instead of BDB.