The Human Anatomy in Ancient Hebrew: An Introduction

There are several collections of biblical Hebrew word lists on the market today. Every one of them is unsatisfactory. The volumes of Landes and Van Pelt-Pratico group words according to frequency of occurrence and include 2,148 and 1,903, respectively, of the some 9,980 vocabulary items found in the Hebrew Bible. But studies show that readers must be able to recognize 98 per cent of the word stock of a corpus to sight read without difficulty. Landes and van Pelt-Pratico do not set the bar high enough.

From a pedagogical point of view, furthermore, there is something perverse about trying to assimilate vocabulary according to frequency spectra. Vocabulary may be organized in any number of ways. If the goal is to commit vocabulary to memory, organization by frequency spectra is among the least useful methods imaginable. It is helpful to think about the interrelationships of vocabulary items which derive from a common root. But there are also pitfalls to that approach which Landes and Van Pelt-Pratico do not adequately address.

Arnet’s volume represents an advance. He includes 2500 vocabulary items and groups them into semantic classes. But the semantic categories are too broad, and subcategories are not properly demarcated. Furthermore, Arnet lists words by semantic class once only. This is unnatural. A typical word will fall into one semantic category in one context and another category in a second context.

Bibliography

Landes, George M. Building Your Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary: Learning Words by Frequency and Cognate. Edited by Steven L. McKenzie. Resources for Biblical Study 41. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001 [1961].

Van Pelt, Miles, and Pratico, Gary D. The Vocabulary Guide to Biblical Hebrew.Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.

Arnet, Samuel. Wortschatz der hebräischen Bibel. Zweieinhalbtausend Vokabeln alphabetisch und thematisch geordnet. Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, ²2007 [2006].

Further critical remarks might be offered, but it seems more to the point to offer alternative approaches to learning and conceptualizing the vocabulary of ancient Hebrew. In a future post, I hope to demonstrate the advantages of learning vocabulary by semantic domains directly from pericope-length texts. But it remains possible to learn vocabulary by semantic domains over the entire corpus of ancient Hebrew. Below the fold, I provide an example.

A glossed and vocalized basic terminology of human anatomy in ancient Hebrew is offered first. Once you feel you have mastered the basic list, it is time to test your knowledge by working through it in un-glossed, un-vocalized format - also provided. Grad students and Hebrew teachers should start with the un-glossed, un-vocalized list, and check knowledge against the glossed and vocalized equivalents in case of doubt. It would be nice to have a list like this related to a 3D image of the human body. Unfortunately, that is beyond my technical capabilities. In future posts, “basic plus” terminology and a “full listing” will be presented.

An asterisked item – in reference to human anatomy - is attested as such in terms of number and gender, but not in terms of state, pronominal suffix, or lack thereof.

The Human Anatomy in Ancient Hebrew

Glossed Basic Terminology

רֹאשׁ        head

פָּנִים         face

שֵׂעָר         hair

 

עַ֫יִן, עֵינַ֫יִם      eye, a pair of eyes

אֹ֫זֶן, אָזְנַ֫יִם ear, a pair of ears         

אַף             nose

 

פֶּה             mouth

לָשׁוֹן, לְשֹׁנוֹת          tongue, tongues

שֵׁן, שִׁנַּ֫יִם            tooth, a pair of set of teeth

שָׂפָה, שְׂפָתַ֫יִם       lip, a pair of lips

נֶ֫פֶשׁ             throat

צַוָּאר          neck

עֹ֫רֶף           nape

שְׁכֶם            back

כָּתֵף, *כְּתֵפַ֫יִם         shoulder, a pair of shoulders

 

שָׁדַ֫יִם           a pair of breasts

חֵיק/חֵק         bosom

 

בֶּ֫טֶן            belly

*מֵעִים          abdomen, viscera

רֶ֫חֶם            womb

קֶ֫רֶב           inward parts

 

לֵב/לֵבָב         heart

כְּלָיוֹת           kidneys

 

זְרוֹעַ, זְרֹעוֹת          arm, arms

יָד, יָדַ֫יִם        arm/hand, a pair of arms/hands

 

יְמִינוֹ/נָהּ          his/her right hand

שְׂמֹאלוֹ/לָהּ           his/her left hand

 

כַּף, כַּפַּ֫יִם        hollow/palm, a pair of palms

אֶצְבַּע, אֶצְבָּעוֹת        finger, fingers

 

מָתְנַ֫יִם         a pair of hips

יָרֵךְ, יְרֵכַ֫יִם         thigh, a pair of thighs

בֶּ֫רֶךְ, בִּרְכַּ֫יִם         knee, a pair of knees

 

רֶ֫גֶל, רַגְלַ֫יִם        foot, a pair of feet

כַּף רֶ֫גֶל, כַּפּוֹת          hollow/sole of a foot, soles

אֶצְבַּע, אֶצְבָּעוֹת         toe, toes

 

עוֹר         skin

בָּשָׂר          flesh

 

דָּם          blood

 

עֶ֫צֶם, עֲצָמוֹת/עֲצָמִים         bone, bones

צֵ֫לַע, צְלָעוֹת         rib, ribs

 

רוּחַ          air

נֶ֫פֶשׁ           life-breath

נְשָׁמָה           breath

 

בָּשָׂר            flesh

נֶ֫פֶשׁ            life-breath

 

גְּוִיָּה             body

נֶ֫פֶשׁ            living being

 

Basic Terminology (Unvocalized)

ראש

 פנים

שער

עין, עינים

אזן, אזנים

אף

פה 

לשון, לשנות

שן, שנים

שפה, שפתים

 

נפש 

צואר

ערף

שכם 

כתף, *כתפים

 

שדים

חיק/חק

 

בטן

*מעים

רחם

קרב 

 

לב/לבב

כליות

 

זרוע, זרעות 

יד, ידים

 

ימינו/נה

שמאלו/לה

 

כף, כפים

אצבע, אצבעות

 

מתנים 

ירך, ירכים

ברך, ברכים

 

רגל, רגלים

כף רגל, כפות

אצבע, אצבעות

 

עור

בשר

 

דם

 

עצם, עצמות/עצמים

צלע, צלעות

 

רוח

נפש

נשמה

 

בשר

נפש 

 

גויה

נפש 

Comments

[David Reimer]

This looks really helpful, John! I look forward to the series' rapid advance. :)

[Robert Holmstedt]

John,

I agree wholeheartedly. In addition to waiting for something like this, I've been wanting to recreate the exercises in our textbook so that each group is presented with a biblical scene in which the word is in the margins of the scene and is connected to an object in the scene (and basic glosses aren't given until the flip side of the page). It's something like the Usborne "first 1000 words" books.

Alas, I'm not artistic and haven't found a good picture bible to use as the basis.

If you know anyone who is both artistic and interested...

Rob

[Andrew Compton]

I've always thought that we need a Hebrew version of Louw & Nida . . .

[Peter Kirk]

There is work in progress on what is more or less a Hebrew version of Louw and Nida, a Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew sponsored by the United Bible Societies. See the work in progress online here.

[JohnFH]

Hi Peter. I enjoyed hearing a presentation by Reinier de Blois, who is heading up the UBS project, at SBL San Diego. The database is very interesting. It is not yet complete, but off to a good start.

[Andrew Compton]

Nice . . . thanks John and Peter for the heads up and the link!

[Suzanne]

Interesting. I once started a notebook of this sort for Greek. Anatomy was the first entry

[Daniel]

Perhaps verbs could be associated with nouns in ways memorable for a reader, like: ear - hear.
שׁמע - אזן
And
שׁמעה אזני
might be a simple translation exercise for the set.

[JohnFH]

Daniel, paradigmatic associations are important. In a future post, I provide examples that are not translation-based.