This dissertation fills a gap in the scholarly study of Classical Hebrew grammar and syntax with the first comprehensive study of oath formulae. The difficult and elliptical nature of oath syntax, along with the multitude of diverse formulae employed, has often given scholars an…
Since the introduction of the concept of the compound clause into biblical Hebrew studies in the late nineteenth century, grammars of biblical Hebrew have presented various and often conflicting descriptions of the uses of the compound clause. Various attempts at harmonization h…
This dissertation examines the function of subject-before-finite-verb clauses in the book of Genesis based on traditional, understanding. Chapter 1 presents an introduction, thesis, and methodology of the project. The research of this dissertation, following the understanding of…
Aramaic was one of the most widely used languages of the ancient Near East. Although most of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran are written in Hebrew, a small number use a variety of Aramaic. All of Qumran Aramaic (QA) has reached published form, though a few minor manuscripts hav…
Functioning as a verb, adverb, adjective, or noun, the infinitive absolute serves as an element of Biblical Hebrew grammar for which no analogous component exists in modern Indo-European languages such as English. The most frequent employment of the infinitive absolute is in "pa…
This dissertation consists of the first complete critical edition of the hexaplaric fragments of Numbers 1-18 from all known Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Syriac, and Latin sources since the publication of Frederick Field's Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt sive veterum interpretum g…
In this dissertation, I explore the 2nd century C.E. reality through the writings of Lucian of Samosata, a native Syrian who wrote in Greek and was a Roman citizen. Lucian wrote a large volume of works that cannot be filed under one specific genre, including Satires, admonitory …
This dissertation examines the KRT text, three clay tablets, from Ras Shamra/Ugarit in the second millennium B.C. and provides a paleographic overview of the scribal patterns. Surveying previous publications related to the KRT text, the study concludes that the collative and tra…
This dissertation analyzes two derived Biblical Hebrew verbal forms, the Niphal and the Hitpael. Present scholarship on Biblical Hebrew does not agree on the definition or relationship of these two stems. In chapter 1 I outline the two major problems for the Niphal and Hitpael: …
Johann Buxtorf was a pivotal figure in the history of Hebrew studies. He composed grammars and lexicons of biblical Hebrew both for beginning students and for researchers. He was committed to establishing Hebrew as a full-fledged humanist language within the academic world and c…
The Aramaic documents from Egypt in the Persian period have been variously studied, particularly with regard to the Jewish community of Elephantine. The presence of women in these texts has been, however, overlooked and neglected in the previous scholarship, where women were tre…
The study of grammar emerged as Arabic became the language of the Islamic empire. Scholars realized that the language of the Arabian Peninsula had started to change, posing a threat to the understanding and correct pronunciation of the Qur'an. The science of grammar started, acc…
The book of Daniel and associated apocrypha in Manuscript Sinai Arabic 1 (henceforth "S1") was edited, selected portions translated, and two discussions included, one describing linguistic phenomena with relation to A Grammar of Christian Arabic by Joshua Blau, and the other pro…
Given the limited size of the Ugaritic corpus, it is often impossible to establish the meanings of words on the basis of attested usage. Consequently, scholars must resort to the witness of the cognate Semitic languages to help them understand Ugaritic. Arabic has been employed …
This thesis is an English translation and assessment of the Arabic Book of the Maccabees from the London Polyglot Bible of 1657. The text, which was dubbed "The Fifth Book of the Maccabees" in an earlier English translation, is an historical narrative of the Hasmonean and Herodi…
The fact that scholars depict Sheol either as the underworld where the dead continue their existence or simply the grave has resulted in contradictory conclusions, fierce polemic, and unremitting disputes. This lack of consensus makes it imperative to justify another approach, w…
My thesis examines knowledge and awareness of the Hebrew language in the Anglo-Saxon period. Because there is minimal evidence of Jews in England or the study of the Hebrew language in this time period, the interest in Hebrew exhibited in Anglo-Saxon writings has rarely been not…
In this dissertation, I critique what I perceive to be a lack in the method of determining meaning currently in use in Biblical Studies in the United States, in that the current dialogical method not only fails to take into account adequately the role of subjectivity in the dete…