Biblical Hebrew Step by Step

Menahem Mansoor was the Chair of Semitic studies at the University of Wisconsin, and his book serves as their textbook for beginners in Biblical Hebrew. As a teacher of Sunday Bible classes, I have found this book the most valuable for beginners. Lambdin is a classic text and a good reference book, Weingreen is too dense, and Ross is good for intermediate students. The book reflects that Mansoor was a teacher for over 25 years, for the vocabulary is well-chosen, the exercises are excellent, and the lessons literally help you build your skills step-by-step. Once you learn the alphabet and the vowels, Mansoor has you reading simple sentences in Scripture within a few weeks! The book also provides the reader with a brief history of the development of the Hebrew language, with its relation to ancient Semitic languages such as Phoenician and Aramaic, as well as a brief commentary on modern Hebrew as well. There is a reason that Mansoor's Biblical Hebrew Step-by-Step is in its 24th printing!

This book is laid out in a very easy to use and progressive order. I have gone through half of the book and really enjoyed my studies. Each chapter has a new vocabulary list, grammar notes, examples and then plenty of exercises that cement the new concepts. The book will get you reading Hebrew very quickly with the Hebrew alphabet which is easier than reading hebrew with our english alphabet. It contains an English/Hebrew and Hebrew/English dictionary in the back with all of the vocabulary words. I wouldn't go very far without buying the answer key; it is very helpful. The vocabulary words are taken from the most used words in the Old Testament and the chapters contain verses from the Old Testament as reading exercises.

I think it is an excellent book to learn to read the Book of Genesis in Hebrew. The format is excellent, with the word in Hebrew and English. It really brings the Book Of Genesis to life, and it also gives it meaning. Thanks Menahem Mansoor for writing ths book. Betty

I'm currently studying Hebrew in a class, and we're using this book as a study aid. I've found it really good at explaining grammar in particular in an easy to understand manner. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Hebrew in an easy format. The only slight drawback is having to buy the answers (key) to the exercises as a separate book.

The back cover of this book states that Mansoor has been teaching Hebrew for many years. It is obvious that this man has truly learned how to teach a difficult subject in that time. I had previously studied Biblical Hebrew using Kittel, Hoffer and Wright's well known text. Their work confused and confounded me at times. Their presentation of grammatical points was not systematic. While some people may learn well from their approach, others will not. Mansoor's book is there for the rest of us who have used Kittel et al, to no avail. The grammar is clear, systematic and EASY TO FOLLOW. In fact, I would say Mansoor's volume is quite enjoyable. I very much applaud what he has done for students of Hebrew with this book. My only real criticism is that the treatment of verb forms (piel, niphal etc) is far too brief. I would also recommend that students who complete Mansoor's book THEN turn to Kittel et al. I found that volume much more understandable after having used Mansoor's text. It is in Kittel's text that an adequate treatment of verb forms will be found and will be understandable after using Mansoor's