Caveat: I read this after working on Hebrew for some time.

I would recommend this book to any Christian wondering whether learning Hebrew would be useful and/or within his/her capabilities. If going on, nothing here would be wasted, rather it would help at many of the difficult bits, and if the decision was made not to go on, at least a partial step would have been made. Certainly it is the best introduction I have yet seen aimed at Christians.

The sections on how Hebrew verbs work, and on the Absolute/Construct forms of nouns are very helpful. In general, I think the grammar parts of the book have given me a much better 'Gestalt' to work from than I had before, and will help me in my further attempts to learn Hebrew properly.

The chapters on interpreting Hebrew prose and poetry, as well as the constant emphasis on using the tools available can only be of great value to anyone doing exegesis. One weakness is that he does not show examples where knowing Hebrew grammar helps in understanding NT texts. (Other than one example of finding the correct text quoted.)

With most Hebrew textbooks it shares the rather overwhelming habit of having chapter 1 say :OK here's the Hebrew alphabet. Memorize it. Then Chapter 2 says : And here are the vowel points memorize them. Now you can pronounce Hebrew. (Aleph isn't Tough http://www.librarything.com/work/523623 is good for learning the alphabet, although mostly based on the Jewish prayerbook.)

The long passages on cases has to do with explaining English grammar and a deep down feeling on the part of the author that languages ought to have cases, than with anything in Hebrew grammar. I also did not like the great emphasis on making flow charts of sentences. ( )