This modern English dictionary for Biblical Hebrew is based on the third edition of Koehler and Baumgartner's renowned lexicon, and is a valuable addition to the library of any Hebrew student or scholar. Translated and Edited under the Supervision of M.E.J. Richardson (The University of Manchester). The third edition of Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner's Hebrew dictionary is widely acclaimed as the most up-to-date dictionary for the Old Testament and related literature in classical Hebrew and Aramaic. The long-awaited English version of this classic reference tool for Bible scholars is intended to become the standard modern English dictionary for biblical Hebrew. The complete and unabridged translation was prepared by an international team of Hebrew and Old Testament scholars. Combining scholarly thoroughness with easy accessibility, the dictionary meets the needs of a wide range of users. The dictionary contains the complete vocabulary of the Hebrew Bible, extended with variants from ... (other sources). It takes full advantage of the enormous advances that have been made in Semitic linguistics since the publication of older dictionaries.

The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament: The New Koehler-Baumgartner in English. By Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner. Subsequently revised by Walter Baumgartner and Johann Jakob Stam. Translated by M. E. J. Richardson. 5 vols. Leiden, New York, Köln: E. J. Brill, 1994-2000. 2094 pages. $495. CD-Rom Edition, Macintosh Version, Accordance Compatible. OakTree Software, Inc. 498 Palm Springs Drive, Suite 100, Altamonte Springs, FL 32701, 2001. http://www.OakSoft.com. (877) 339-5855. $400.

Hebrew lexicography, especially for English readers, has long been in need of an up-to-date, first-rate work which would take the place of Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB), which was published in 1907. The first edition of Koehler-Baumgartner (K-B) was published in 1953 with translations of Hebrew words in both English and German. This work, however, failed to receive widespread scholarly acceptance. The second edition dropped the English translations, and BDB has continued to be widely used in the English world.

The new Koehler-Baumgartner is finally complete in five volumes and is now the definitive Old Testament lexicon. (There is a project at the University of Sheffield headed by David A. Clines which has produced four volumes of an anticipated eight, A Dictionary of Classical Hebrew).

The first four volumes are the lexicon of the Hebrew portions of the Old Testament, while the fifth is the Aramaic. The greatest advantage of K-B3 comes from its inclusion of the tremendous amount of lexical study that has been done in the last century. Furthermore, the Hebrew texts from Qumran have increased our corpus of ancient Hebrew literature and also our understanding of many Hebrew words.

One of the problems of Hebrew lexicography is the limited amount of ancient Hebrew literature. There are many rare words in the Old Testament which are obscure. Ancient translations can be of help here, and cognate Semitic languages are often consulted, a practice which is hermeneutically weak, but sometimes there is no other choice. K-B3 gives a rather detailed presentation of the meaning of related roots in cognate languages. The foreign scripts which traditionally plague the student who does not know four or five Semitic languages have been romanized. Only Greek and Hebrew words are given in their traditional scripts.

K-B3 is attractively laid out and is arranged with words in alphabetical order. BDB was laid out according to the Hebrew roots, and this frequently makes it difficult for the student to find words. K-B3 is much easier to use.

There are two drawbacks to K-B3. The first is the price. With the cost at $400-500 many students will long for the luxury of this tool which they cannot afford. They will continue to choose BDB at $62.95 from Oxford or $35 from Hendrickson Publishers. Fortunately there will be an unabridged two-volume student edition for $160.

The other difficulty with a large multi-volume lexicon like this one is the continual switching between volumes as you look up words. Fortunately this problem has been solved with the CD-Rom edition. In the Accordance version you only need to click on the word in the Hebrew text and you are taken directly to the word in the lexicon. The electronic version is identical to the book edition and is extremely helpful. Currently the CD-Rom covers the first four volumes or the entire Hebrew lexicon. Volume 5 is the Aramaic lexicon and an eighty-five page bibliography which includes all of the secondary sources referred to in the lexicon. This will be included in an updated CD-Rom and should be available by the time of the publication of this issue of The Emmaus Journal.

K-B3 is now a primary and indispensable tool for all serious study of the Hebrew Bible.

John H. Fish III. The Emmaus Journal.