Practicing Biblical Hebrew the Fun Way

I'm excited to introduce you to a new set of resources from GlossaHouse publishers: The Illustrated Hebrew Bible and The Illustrated Greek Bible.

Each volume includes the unabridged Hebrew or Greek text of Scripture embedded in lively illustrations by Keith Neely. At the bottom of each page is a fresh English translation that follows the word order of the original text as closely as possible so that readers can easily locate a gloss for unfamiliar words.

To date, the published volumes include Genesis, Exodus, Mark, and a single volume that includes the Hebrew short stories of Ruth, Jonah, and Esther.

I'm personally invested in this project, having spent dozens of hours preparing the Exodus volume. It was a tangible way for me to commemorate 6 years working on the Decalogue (a.k.a. Ten Commandments). I believe my GlossaHouse English translation is the first to reflect the natural reading of the Hebrew in Exodus 20:7 that recognizes its metaphorical underpinnings: "You shall not bear the name of YHWH, your God, in vain." For the 200-page justification of this translation, you can pre-order my published dissertation. But in the meantime you can get your hands on this beautiful volume with my English translation for yourself.

These volumes would make fantastic Christmas gifts for the Language nerds in your life. They would also work well for . . .

• Hebrew or Greek Reading Courses - Professors could require or encourage students to buy these editions to more rapidly increase fluency. Visual cues make reading more natural.
• Hebrew or Greek Exegesis Courses - Students can opt to use these instead of BHS for class because they include the entire Hebrew or Greek text of Scripture.
• Individuals wanting to retain biblical languages or increase reading fluency - A page or more a day would be a great way to keep up your languages!
• Homeschool families - Children studying biblical languages at home will love these books!
• Jewish families raising their children to read and speak Hebrew and know the Hebrew Bible.

Other volumes currently in production include Judges, Samuel, Job, John, and 1,2,3 John, plus Latin versions of Genesis and Mark. All the copies at the GlossaHouse booth at SBL sold out by the second day, so you'll want to order your copies before they disappear!

new books on the block ... by Daniel Block

Dr. Daniel Block must be one of the most productive writers on the planet. Since I arrived at Wheaton to study under him just 18 months ago he has published 4 books (including this, this, this and this), with 6 others in various stages of preparation, and several more on the horizon. You can watch for the following additions to his bibliography in the next year (the first three are with the publisher, the last two are in the final stages of submission, and the commentary on Ruth is in the research and writing phase):

• a book on biblical worship (Baker)
• a reprint of his Gods of the Nations, including an appendix with his original translation of a text on Marduk (Wipf & Stock)
• a commentary on Obadiah based on discourse-analysis in the new series for which he serves as general editor, Hearing the Message of Scripture (Zondervan)
• a commentary on Ruth for the same series (Zondervan)
• a 2-volume collection of his essays on Ezekiel, some of which have never before been published (Wipf & Stock)

Speaking of bibliography . . . if you’re looking for me, I’ll be in my study carrel fine-tuning footnotes and bibliographies.

Stay tuned for all this and more!