The Biblical Hebrew Verbal System with John Cook (Part 2 of the Verbal Systems of the Biblical Languages)

January 25, 2021 // The Biblical Languages Podcast

Image: "The Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea" National Library of Israel, Rothschild Haggadah (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso interviews John Cook on the Biblical Hebrew verbal system.

John Cook (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a Professor of Old Testament and the Director of Hebrew Instruction at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of several publications, including "Time and the Hebrew Verb: the Expression of Tense, Aspect, and Modality in Biblical Hebrew" (Eisenbrauns, 2012), "Beginning Biblical Hebrew: A Grammar and Illustrated Reader" (co-authored with Robert D. Holmstedt; Baker 2013), and "Intermediate Biblical Hebrew: A Grammar and Illustrated Reader" (co-authored with Robert D. Holmstedt; Baker forthcoming).

Here's a snapshot of what you can expect in this conversation:

• An overview of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system and key debates going on in the field
• How key linguistic categories like tense, aspect, and modality can help inform our understanding of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system
• An overview of Cook's analysis of the Biblical Hebrew system
• Why an understanding of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system matters for exegesis

Show notes

This is Part 2 of our series on The Verbal Systems of the Biblical Languages. Check out the other episodes in this series:

• Part 1: Tense, Aspect, and Modality with Nora Boneh
• Part 3: The Biblical Greek Verbal System with Steve Runge
• Part 4: How to Interpret Biblical Hebrew Verbs
• Part 5: How to Interpret Biblical Greek Verbs (coming soon)

Where to listen

The Biblical Languages Podcast hosts discussions and interviews related to learning the biblical languages and issues relevant to biblical exegesis. Episodes cover topics in 4 major categories: language acquisition, linguistics, cultural backgrounds, and exegesis.

Listen & subscribe here: https://biblingo.org/podcast/