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Subsection
Exegetical & Theological Dictionaries on the Bible
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Order of Contents
English to Hebrew
For KJV
Synonyms
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Start Here
Beginner
Holladay, William – A Concise Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Based upon the Lexical Work of Ludwig Koehler & Walter Baumgartner Buy (Eerdmans & Brill, 1988) 445 pp.
Most Hebrew dictionaries list words according to their root, which can sometimes be difficult for the beginner to use. This dictionary includes the form of the word as it is found in Scripture, is not bulky, is easy to read and is based on modern scholarship.
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Parsing Guides
Davidson, Benjamin – The Analytical Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon, Consisting of… Every Word & Inflection Contained in the Old Testament… with a Grammatical Analysis of Each Word Buy (1855)
Most Hebrew dictionaries lay out the Hebrew words according to their roots. But how does one know what is the root of the word in question? This work fully parses out each Hebrew word. Each Hebrew word, as it is found in Scripture, is listed in alphabetical order.
Beall, Todd, Colin Smith, William Banks – Old Testament Parsing Guide, vol. 1 (Gen-Esth), 2 (Job-Mal) Buy (Moody, 1986)
All the verbs, and only the verbs, of the Old Testament are fully parsed, laid out in the order of the books of the Bible (which ordering is very convenient for finding the word in question).
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Advanced
Brown, Francis, S.R. Driver & Charles Briggs – A Hebrew & English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906 / 1939) Buy based on Gesenius, tr. Edward Robinson Known as Brown-Driver-Briggs or BDB
This was the best and most standard Hebrew dictionary of the older scholarship. A wealth of information. Words are listed by their roots, which can sometimes make finding words tricky; use the parsing guides above. The three editors were liberals (though this does not affect the dictionary’s usefulness much, if one ignores the J.E.P.D. references).
Koehler, Ludwig & Walter Baumgartner – The Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 2 vols. Buy (Brill, 2002)
The best dictionary for the latest scholarship as it has advanced since Brown-Driver-Briggs, though it is terribly expensive.
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More Dictionaries
1800’s
Parkhurst, John – A Hebrew & English Lexicon 8th ed. (1823)
Frey, Joseph – A Hebrew & English Dictionary (1842)
Lee, Samuel – A Lexicon, Hebrew, Chaldee & English, compiled from… Buxtorf, Taylor, Parkhurst & Gesenius (1844)
Gesenius, William – A Hebrew & English Lexicon of the Old Testament trans. Edward Robsinson (1854)
Tregelles, Samuel – Gesenius’s Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, with Additions & Corrections… (1857)
Fuerst, Julius – A Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament trans. Samuel Davidson (1867)
Davies, Benjamin – Student’s Hebrew Lexicon: A Compendious & Complete Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Chiefly Founded on the Works of Gesenius & Furst (1872)
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1900’s
Harkavy, Alexander – Students’ Hebrew & Chaldee Dictionary to the Old Testament (Hebrew Publishing Co., 1914)
Koehler, Ludwig & Walter Baumgartner – Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (1953; Brill, 1958)
In this scholarly work, first German definitions are given of the Hebrew word, then English. The more recent four volume, and then two volume, The Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament was a translation and updating of this work.
Klein, Ernest – A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English (University of Haifa, 1987)
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English to Hebrew
1800’s
Newman, Selig – An English & Hebrew Lexicon, composed after Johnson’s Dictionary, containing 15,000 English Words Rendered into Biblical or Rabbinical Hebrew (1832)
Robinson, Edward – An English-Hebrew Lexicon: Being a Complete Verbal Index to Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon (1877)
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How Hebrew Words are Translated in the KJV
Strong, James – The Hebrew Bible; with their Renderings in the Authorized English Version (1890)
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Synonyms
Kennedy, James – Studies in Hebrew Synonyms (London: Williams & Norgate, 1898) 150 pp. ToC
This gives the various Hebrew words for the English words:
Flee, wall, wash, lion, sleep, fool, folly, coal, flood, oil, old, weariness, hide, conceal, poor, pour out, rain, rock, cliff, crag, rod, stick, staff, ashes, dust.
Girdlestone’s Synonyms of the Old Testament
The synonyms are alphabetically organized in English.
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A Rabbinic Dictionary
Jastrow, Marcus – A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli & Yerushalmi & the Midrashic Literature (Philadelphia: 1803-1903) at Sefaria See also the print edition, 1967, vol. 1, 2.
Jastrow (1829-1903) was a German-born American Talmudic scholar and a progressive, early reformist rabbi.
This is the standard, comprehensive dictionary to rabbinic literature and is very useful in seeing trajectories of Hebrew words after the writing of the Old Testament, and comparing them with usages in the Old Testament, especially where the word is used infrequently therein.
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“The Greek mind was abstract, the Hebrew concrete.”
John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan
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Related Pages
Old Testament Background, Survey, Authenticity & Introduction