Hebrew Accent Color File and Consonantal Text

Here are a couple of additions that arose from the BibleWorks forums:

1. Hebrew consonantal text (DOWNLOAD): This version is the same textually as the BibleWorks standard WTT text, except this is without any vowel pointings. See how good your Hebrew is now!

2. Accent Color file (DOWNLOAD): This colour file colourises the JDP version in BibleWorks so that conjunctive and disjunctive accents may be distinguished at a glance: conjunctive accents are shaded yellow, disjunctive accents are shaded green.

Both are offered by David Kummerow, see reference on the BibleWorks forums.

We really do exist!

It's been a long time between posts! This is not completely by choice, but due to the nature of the academic cycle and being so busy! I have also noticed with other blogs on my blogroll that after a while many of them stop being nearly so active because blogs actually are a lot of work to keep up. Even more so with this one because it entails a lot of work before anything can even be posted. However, since things have been so quiet here lately, let me remind you of other helpful things.

First of all, BibleWorks has recently released A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew by Jacob Weingreen, available as a module add-on. BibleWorks' version costs $49, while I see the Amazon price for the print book is $53, so for a little less than the real book you get all the usual features of a digital module in BibleWorks. While I learned Hebrew using a different grammar, my professor did highly recommend Weingreen's grammar and when I had the chance to buy a used copy at a local bookstore (why they had a copy of a Hebrew grammar floating around sure beats me), I jumped at it and I can say that it is a very nice beginning level grammar. Definitely not in the league of Waltke-O'Connor or Joüon-Muraoka, but helpful nevertheless for those who like grammars.

Second, BibleWorks has recently started a section on their website for classroom tips. So far there are seven tips up and more expected to be added later. These are the sort of things Jim and I have hoped to have on this blog as well, but we have not been very successful at implementing this. Also, related to this, if you haven't added Mark Hoffman's blog called Biblical Studies and Technological Tools, please do so now. Mark has also helped fill a gap as he rather routinely highlights specific uses not only of BibleWorks, but also Logos software and often compares and contrasts the two, noting strengths and weaknesses of both pieces of software.

Third, BibleWorks has a sale going on until Nov. 30 for users of older BW versions. If you're not yet living in BW7, now is as good a time as any to sign on. Buy now and put it under the Christmas tree for later :) The sale has caused some on the BW forums to speculate whether this means BW8's release is imminent, but BW staff has assured customers that this is a special treat for users to upgrade and not a way to cop people out of money only to find out that a new release is just weeks away. So if the burning question in your heart is when is BW8 going to be released, the answer is: not for a while. However, when it is released, you can be sure there will be lots of new features, bells and whistles that make you drool.

Fourth, a question for the readers. As I have worked to provide a lot of classical Greek text resources, I am wondering how you find them helpful or whether you do at all. How do you use them? What else would you like to see added? Etc.?

Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament

Ewan MacLeod is at it again. This time he's proofread and compiled the Hebrew New Testament by Franz Delitzsch. MacLeod states:

This is a very good complement to the current Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament in BW. Both were made shortly before Modern Hebrew was created by Eliezer ben Yehuda, yet the Delitzsch HNT in particular flows very fluently, and still sounds good today. If you turn the Text Comparison facility on to compare HNT and DLZ, you will see that there is a great deal of similarity between the two.

DOWNLOAD!

To install, unzip the files into your /bibleworks/databases/ folder.

BibleWorks 7 New Module: Joüon-Muraoka Biblical Hebrew Grammar

Although I am partial to Greek resources, I am still excited by news of a new module being released today for BibleWorks 7:

Don't be fooled. There is another edition of Joüon-Muraoka floating around out there, but this module represents the latest edition, published in 2006 by the Pontifical Biblical Institute, but more information on the print edition at Eisenbrauns:

Already well known in its two-volume first edition [«Subsidia Biblica», n. 14], this is the most extensive revision yet of one of the most complete Hebrew Grammars available in English. That first edition of 1991 was, in its turn, based on the original work in French by Paul Joüon published for the first time in 1923. This edition brings the work up to the present by taking account of developments in our understanding of the Hebrew language during the intervening years. For the first time the work is presented in a single volume. Professor Muraoka hopes that this helps to make the book more attractive and the content easier to use. As with the earlier edition students of the Old Testament, Hebrew and Semitics who have a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew will find much useful insight and information here.

The module is available as a download for $75 via the BibleWorks website.