Actually, the interlinear that I have (the NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament) does, in fact, use the BHS. On the down-side, it’s in four volumes and available for $50-60 through the various book-handlers. There’s also a one-volume version;
Christianbook.com is offering it for $59.00.
I know that text, and it doesn’t really use the BHS – the main point of the BHS is the extensive apparatus that it contains that explains all of the textual variations. Without those variations, it is not the BHS – it is simply the Masoretic text. I also cannot recommend that book because it makes the Hebrew concordant with the NIV translation – but the NIV translation is rather free and paraphrastic. It also explains no grammar at all.
The best discussion of Hebrew Biblical grammar in English is the Baylor University Handbooks. For example,
Genesis 1-11: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text breaks down the grammar of the of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, and it takes 600+ pages to do it. You can look on Amazon’s “look inside” to see if it is what you are looking for. There are also handbooks on
Amos,
Ruth, and
Jonah (and by the way, they have Greek handbooks too:
Epistles of John,
Ephesians,
Acts, and
1 Peter.)
BHS is being revised by the way – the new version is called
Biblia Hebraica Quinta.
Here is an article about it. Volumes are now appearing – it is spectacular.
I definitely disagree that you need or should use an interlinear translation. If you use an interlinear translation, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll never learn the language. Further, many words in Hebrew are unclear – for example, they are hapax legomena that only appear once in the Hebrew Bible. When they appear in an interlinear edition, you’re getting a very narrow interpretation. Finally, you can’t understand the Hebrew Bible from vocabulary alone – you need grammar, and interlinears won’t help you at all with that. (The Baylor handbooks listed above will help you with that, however.)
What you need is a contextual dictionary that will allow you to figure out what those words mean (and compare them to other Semitic languages). An older but still definitive lexicon for the Hebrew Bible is Brown-Driver-Briggs – you can find it
online for free, but it is so hard to use online that I’d recommend picking up
a print copy (it is not expensive). Most beginners find the
index also useful – strictly speaking, it is not necessary, but it will save you hundreds of hours.
The best introduction to Hebrew I know is
Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way. I know, you are thinking – prayerbook Hebrew? I want to read the Bible in Hebrew, not say Jewish prayers. But Jewish prayers are, by and large, written in Biblical Hebrew, so this is actually a very gentle introduction to Biblical Hebrew. Frankly, it will only get you part of the way to your goal, but it can help a little bit. You’ll also definitely need
the spoken word CD that accompanies it – and I also recommending getting the
flashcards and
the dictionary. If you prefer, you can get the flashcards for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad at the iTunes store.
However, even that book may be too much for you if you are starting out. If you are starting out, your first goal is simply to learn to vocalize Hebrew. Books like
Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew or
Learn Hebrew Today: Alef-Bet for Adults are useful – but please realize that this will only teach you how to pronounce written Hebrew. That’s a necessary first step, though, and it takes some time to get it right.
But even after you finish these books, you’ll only have begun learning Hebrew. Then you’ll be able to tackle a first year college textbook, and there are lots of good choices at that level. Let me know when you get to that point, and I’ll give you some recommendations.
