New Modules - Old Hebrew Grammar Series

I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that since the last major updating there has been not one, two, or even three new Hebrew grammar modules made available by Pasquale. Quite frankly I didn't even know that so many existed. All of these are out of print and copyright editions (so they are rather old), but nevertheless, they still might be useful to specialists in the field or else to those who simply like to see how others explain certain grammatical features. They are all modules of images of each page of the real book (so searching and copying and pasting is not really an option with them), which may downgrade their value. But then again, you're not going to be paying anything for them, so why are you complaining?

FUN USER CHALLENGE HERE:
However, to increase their value, Pasquale has added a special feature to these files. Can you tell me what it is and how it is helpful? If anyone can figure it out, they will get the spotlight in the next blog post.

So here are the goods: (follow along with the series on the BibleWorks forums)

• Introductory Hebrew grammar : Hebrew syntax by Andrew Bruce Davidson - Pasquale Amicarelli
• Hebrew Grammar by Alexander Meyrowitz - Pasquale Amicarelli
• Manual of Hebrew grammar by Josephus David Wijnkoop - Pasquale Amicarelli
• A grammar of the Hebrew language by Himan Hurwitz - Pasquale Amicarelli

Smyth, Greek Grammar

In what is the first of a few updates, I am happy to release the first edition of Smyth's Greek Grammar. This is a pretty monumental release because of the size and quality of the work. For a long time, this work has only been available digitally as a PDF on Textkit's website or on Perseus, but the dependability of Perseus has been more questionable as of late, which makes that version less useful. I saw long ago that George Somsel began a project to digitalize Smyth on CCEL, but it seems like that has long since stopped. I have grabbed his first couple of pages since I did not have these in my HTML version. I also included at the end an index for Smyth to various works which are found within the text. This is a valuable list, but I have not yet got around to making the links work for it. Kudos to the Greek Geek for those references.

So what works and what doesn't in this release?
You can use this to let me know yourself what is or isn't working, but here are some of the things I know of:

• Most of the links should work that do not contain letters in them. So a link that says "cross 832" should work, but link "823 a" probably doesn't. The fix is fairly simple, i just need to add a "_" to the links (and finish adding anchors where they do not exist)

• Page numbers have anchors and they are the primary means for getting around on the left-hand pane. (But I only have the table of contents for Part One and Part Three up)

• Part Two on Inflection and especially Part Four on Syntax will be slow to load because they are very large HTML files. In the future I will try to chop up these files into smaller bites so they load faster.

• I have not read the entire text so I don't know if there are any major typos or text issues. There are bound to be some since the file is large.

If you notice anything else you can let me know. As of right now though the problem isn't that I haven't found the mistakes, it's that I haven't had the time to fix them. So if you want to help out cleaning up any of the files, please let me know! Meanwhile, enjoy what does work about these files.

DOWNLOAD!

Update: Goodwin's Grammar

New to Goodwin's Greek Grammar is added functionality to make it more useful as a reference text.

Now when you have it loaded in BibleWorks it will offer links in the Resource Summary Window based on over 20 syntactical categories like the cases, moods, pronouns which will instantly jump you to the relevant portions of Goodwin's Grammar.

Take a look for instance at John 16:1. When I mouse over the word ὑμῖν, Goodwin now provides instant links to the following syntactic categories which pertain to this word: Pronouns, Personal Pronouns, and Dative Case.



Then clicking on one of these will automatically load the Goodwin Grammar to the appropriate spot. Neat huh?

To get this feature you could redownload the entire Goodwin grammar, but that isn't especially recommended since it's over 20MB. Instead, just download this short goodwingr.chd, save it in your subdirectory of BibleWorks called "databases" (overwriting the old file), restart BibleWorks and you will have the new special features.

DOWNLOAD entire Grammar!

DOWNLOAD goodwingr.chd!

New Module - Goodwin, A Greek Grammar

The latest offering is one that has long been available on TextKit and CCEL. I had always been hoping to find a text/HTML version of it online somewhere, but I haven't yet. Nevertheless, the page images are still valuable and so now we are pleased to release Goodwin's Greek Grammar for use in BibleWorks 7! Sure it's not as good as the real thing, but the price is right isn't it??

This is what the blurb in TextKit had to say:

Goodwin's Greek Grammar stands with Hadley's Greek Grammar as one of the most widely used and longest running Greek Grammars in America. The grammar has gone through many editions and reprints for over 130 years, with the last major edition appearing in 1930.

Goodwin first earned academic recognition for his Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb which was first published in 1865. Five years later in 1870 he created the first edition of Greek Grammar which was a brief 235 page textbook called Elementary Greek Grammar. In 1879 the grammar was later revised to 393 page edition and renamed to A Greek Grammar. In 1892, Goodwin revised his grammar yet again to the 451 page edition entitled, A Greek Grammar Revised and Enlarged. It is the 'revised and enlarged' edition which was in widespread use and it is this edition that is available for download. The next major edition, the Goodwin and Gulick edition, occurred 38 years later in 1930 and was largely rewritten by Charles Gulick. The Goodwin and Gulick edition can be purchased new to this day.It should be made absolutely clear that Goodwin's Greek Grammar is what is known as a reference grammar and it is not intended for beginners. Historically, students used this grammar in conjunction with a reader by the same publisher. The reader would provide notes and references back to the grammar for further help and clarification. See Goodwin's First Four Book's of Xenophon's Anabasis as an example.

Goodwin's Greek Grammar use as a reference grammar for the modern student is now largely replaced by Smyth's massive and highly praised 800 page Greek Grammar which was first published in 1920. Still, for intermediates Goodwin offers more succinct discussions and for all learners an additional perspective is at times very helpful. Part IV, Syntax, should prove to be especially helpful for today's learners and is well worth exploration.

DOWNLOAD! 23 MB!

New Module - Plumley's Introductory Coptic Grammar

Just hours after a user on the BibleWorks user forums wondered if it would be possible to convert J. Martin Plumley's Introductory Coptic Grammar from HTML to a BibleWorks user-module, Pasquale showed that it could be done and came through with such speed that it makes me look like a turtle. I still have like ten other things I'm trying to do, but haven't finished and before I could even look at the files, he finished compiling and converting it. So now you are the beneficiaries!

The zip file contains the grammar itself and fonts. The fonts need to be installed to Windows (by moving them to the \fonts\ directory of Windows. The grammar files can be placed in the \databases\ subdirectory of BibleWorks 7.

DOWNLOAD!

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.