Amos: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text [Paperback]

This book does a very good job explaining all the words of every verse. Dr. Garrett is very clear and straightforward in his presentation of the text. For an intermediate Hebrew student, this is a great companion to extra practice in prophecy and poetry texts. (But, in following with Garrett's method, make sure you wrestle with the text on your own before just looking for his answers.)

The young student of classical Hebrew philology is richly rewarded by reading, studying and reflecting on this deligthful treatise by Dr. Duane A. Garrett. The great Eighth Century poetical prophet, Amos [760-750 B.C.E.], will find a new audience for his divine and prophetical oracles of Doom. Our Age would do well to heed the lucid message of Amos, epecially his social criticisms of the abusive behavior of the powerful and corrupt---be they royal officers of the court and palace, royal off-spring (princes and princesses), wealthy merchants or the priesthood itself.

Dr. Garrett embellishes his text with the appropriate historical context and events that make Amos the prophet as pertinent to our vulgar, meretricious age [think Republicans in America, a silly kleptocracy] as the Judean 8th Century! Amos teaches how easy it is to steal the people's money by corruption in the churches and the courts---the twin sources of human mischief of deceit and violence in our social mileau.

After so much grammatical detail, it is nonsensical not to include a glossary of all Hebrew vocabulary and appropriate verbal conjugations and nominal declensions in this text. The nouns should be given in their singular & plural forms, and their singular & plural construct forms. After all, its pretense is the furthering development of the young student in his more mature Hebrew scholarship! This would further strengthen the mind of our young in philological matters.

After realing this treatise three times, I wish to add the following observations to my critique of this book. It must be re-issued after the following errors are corrected: p. 54 8th Oracle (Jerusalem/Israel), p. 88 al/all, p.90 is...is, p. 98 part/a part, p.104 At (go) to Gilgal/and (go) to Gilgal, p. 108 Line A1d, Ale/Line A1e, A1f, p. 110 Numbers 20:25/Numbers 24:20, p. 115 no/not, p. 146 could paraphrastic, p.155 turn away...away, p. 197 1c missing on 6:11, p. 238 A1a & A1b missing, p. 257 to so bring/so to bring, p. 275 exception Israel.

Also, Garrett needs to clean up his presentation of the Jewish neums and inter-punctuation marks. He needs to re-read his Franz Praetorius treatises. Also, he needs to read Ed. Sievers & H. Guthe, Amos metrisch bearbeitet (1907); he needs to master the monumental labors of D. H. Muller, Die Propheten in ihrer ursprungl. Form (2 volumes) Vienna (1896). He needs to pay attention more to ictus (beats), arsis & thesis in Hebrew poetry.

He discusses the following Accentus Communes in Libris XXI: A. Distinctivi sive Domini [The Disjunctive Accents]: Silluq (end), 'Athnah (rest), Zeqeph qaton (little Zeqeph), Rebhia' (revia) [pp. 32, 52, 103, 106, 127, 145, 146, 151, 180, 191, 246, 247, 250, 257, 267, 270, 280 & 283], Tiphha (tifha) [pp. 28, 46, 51, 68, 77, 93, 103, 108, 113, 147, 152, 156, 157, 158, 162, 164, 270 & 274], Tebhir (tevir) [pp. 169, 265 & 271] Pasta (pashta) [pp. 16, 38, 62, 63, 215, 226, 240 & 290], Segolta (Segholta) [p. 288], Zarqa [p. 96-7]; B. Conjunctivi sive Servi [The Conjunctive Accents]: Munah (*Munah/Munach) [pp. 16 & 258], Merekha (merka) [pp. 177, 220 & 231 (not stated)], Telisa qetanna (little Telisha) [pp. 14 & 97 (not stated)], and 'Azla (Azla) [p. 121]. Professor Garrett needs to brush up on his Jewish & Christian Accentuaologists! I would suggest W. Wicks, "The Accents of the 21 Books" Oxford, 1887; and the gold standard, Franz Praetorius, Die Herkunft der hebr. Accente, berlin (1901) & Die Uebernahme der fruh-mittelgriech. Neumen durch die Juden, Berlin (1902).

The students need to know the three competing systems of inter-punctuation marks and neums (cantillations or chanting) in the Hebrew MSS transmission process: Babylonian Punctuation System [Eastern Schools or Orientals---Arab influence]; Tiberian Punctuation System [Western Schools or Occidentals---Syrian influence]; and Palestinian Punctuation System (the basis for both the Western & Eastern Schools) Occidentals. Modern American Jews and Israelis follow the 'Polish' German Jews or Syriac tradition in Hebrew pronunciation and transliteration; we Roman Catholics and Protestants follow the Spanish & Portuguese Jews or Arabic tradition (due to the father of Hebrew philology in the West, J. Reuchlin).

I cannot, in closing, stress enough that this important treatise in the Baylor Handbook Series must be prepared more carefully, and issued with a competent Hebrew glossary included for the Intermediate & Advance Student. I will not discuss in this review the foolish nonsense of pretending that the text of Amos did not undergo 400 years of literary growth (ca. 750 to 350 BCE) as revealed by a competent mastery of the classical Hebrew language & texts!

Respectfully,

John E.D.P. Malin,
Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer
Informatica Corporation
P. O. Drawer 460
Cecilia LA 70521-0460