A Reader's Hebrew and Greek Bible Leather Bound – 11 April 2010

I bought this to keep pressing on with my Greek and Hebrew in ministry having taken them to a reasonable level in college. Despite being disappointing how much I have forgotten, this is a real aid to continuing to read the Bible in the original languages. I find the fonts fine, despite some of the other comments. The cover isn't as nice as it sounds from the description, but it's fine. You don't have the exact texts that would be necessary for academic work, but it's not realy intended for that, it's inteneded for reading. Having both Greek and Hebrew in the same book is very useful. I'm loving it.

I use this every day to keep up my Greek and Hebrew. The OT is basically the MT and the NT is back worked from the NIV but has footnotes to say where the UBS 4 differs (which isn't so often). The lexical help in footnotes is good, x100 down for Hebrew, x50 down for Greek, about right if you know about 1000 words in each language but sometimes forget an odd word. There are two ribbons for keeping your place in each part, and glossaries for both too. Good to have both Greek and Hebrew together in one bound volume for devotional use, though not really for serious exegesis and study.

Having studied Hebrew and Greek to an introductory level and wanting to use it daily as part of my Scripture reading, this Reader's Bible makes it feasible without the need for masses of reference tomes on the desk. Well produced and finished, including a slip-case to protect it when packing for holidays and time away. I use it every day.

I've been using (and loving) the individual Old and New Testament "Reader's" versions for a few years now and have been longing for them to appear in one volume. Seriously, at one point I even considered super-gluing them together! So I was utterly delighted to find that this had been published.It's an 'OK' quality book - not a true luxury volume by any means, but excellent given the price. I've read some complaints about the 'Fine-grain Black European Leather', but while it's not exactly finest calf or goatskin, it's... well, it's OK. In fact, it's MUCH better than I was expecting from what some reviewers have said. It kinda reminds me of thin shoe leather. A *little* bit cardboard-y, perhaps. Time will tell how well it stands up to daily use, but I suspect it will be much more durable than the vinyl-ish covers of the individual volumes.Because the cover is basically a wraparound slab of leather (I mean, the spine area hasn't been 'tooled' or 'creased' or whatever the word is) the book doesn't stay closed when you set it down. The cover keeps trying to revert to what it is - an extended oblong of stiff uncreased leather. Again, not a big problem, but it adds to the 'cheapo' feel of the edition.Unlike the individual OT & NT volumes, the title is only printed on the spine, not on the front cover. I like this, because it means in Church I can set it down without having to remember to keep a blank face upwards (I don't like to look like a show-off!!)Some reviewers have complained that the the corners of the book are square, not rounded. I can only state that mine HAS nicely rounded corners, much like any other Bible.The paper is very pleasing - brilliantly white, and not too thin. It feels nice to the touch. And there are some full-colour maps between NT and OT. The pages have an eye-catching silver gilt finish which compliments the black cover.I should probably mention that the first one I received was defective. I discovered that a few pages here and there had folded diagonally before they'd been cut and bound. This meant that when unfolded, the uncut pages (besides having a nasty crease) projected out about half an inch too far on two sides of the book. I presume I was just very unlucky in getting a flawed copy, but you might like to check through your Bible carefully as soon as it arrives (and I mean all the way, page-by-page), because this fault isn't immediately obvious.The Hebrew font is fine, though I still don't like the decision to print proper names and place names in a light grey font. On many pages (genealogies, for instance) the effect is incredibly ugly - it often looks like the print has smeared badly, or as if the page was produced by a printer that was running out of ink. The gray-print for proper names isn't always consistently done either.Still, no big deal.The thing that really came close to spoiling the book for me is the terrible font of the New Testament.It's not that it's too small. It isn't. It's more that it's too... thin. If you can imagine the opposite of 'bold' font - ie, where the letters are eroded to an unnatural thinness, that will give you some idea of what I mean. It's so fine that compared to the beautiful black Hebrew font it looks grey on the page. It's hard on the eyes, and if you have less than perfect eyesight, you may find reading it an uncomfortable chore.New Testament quotes from the OT are printed in a bold font. Looking at it, I only wish they'd elected to print the whole NT in THAT font. It would have been so much better. My recommendation would be to at least browse the book in a real bookshop before committing to purchase it, just in case you don't mind the font at all (or find it TOTALLY repulsive!)(PS - it's about 5 months since I wrote my review. I've been using this Bible every day and - despite my grumbles above - I've got used to it. I still don't LOVE the Greek font, but I can live with it. In fact, I've reached a point where I'm happy to consider this as the Bible I'll be using for the rest of my life - so much so that I've paid a small fortune to leatherbibles.com to have it rebound in beautiful calfskin to replace the tacky 'European Leather'. Now it really is a beautiful book to look at, use (and even smell!) I'm still not wildly happy about that font, but for me, this is now THE Bible.)(PPS, at the end of 2015. After about four and a half years of continuous use, the bible is wearing very well (which is to say, it's not wearing at all! In just about every respect it looks as new as the day I received it, and the only attention it's been given is a very occasional wipe-down with a 'leather care' cloth. Still don't like the Greek font, but still living with it!)

The entire scriptures in the original languages with footnotes defining all but the most frequently used words. This greatly speeds up progress through a passage as constant reference to a dictionary is no longer required. This tool is at the heart of my original language Bible study and I would not wish to be without it.

After reading other reviews I had several concerns. Was the greek text unreadable? What editions of the greek and hebrew texts are used? Not clear from the descriptions at the time.In short there is a basic apparatus which displays differences with ubs4 and BHS. There are not many differences at all. Both texts represent good scholarly choices so students like myself need not be concerned about practicing or praying from this version but markers will expect you to work from na28, BHS or BHQ for assignments.I have found both the greek and hebrew fonts very readable. I have stuck some reminder charts in the front and back for declensions.It's a very nice bible!

After years of using Bibleworks, and hoping to get to a level where I could read Greek and Hebrew fluently, I'm thrilled to have a Greek and Hebrew Bible with *ALL* of the vocabulary words in it. It does not just have the uncommon ones; the common ones (that would normally be memorized in first year Greek and Hebrew), are listed in a wonderful little index in the back. That's good for me, since I seem to forget some of them more than some of the ones with definitions in the footnotes!I don't know what the comments about font are about; I have no issues with it. It is quite clear, crisp, and well-printed. Bold is nice; but I have no trouble reading it at all. Compared to some of the other Greek Bibles I've bought, it's lovely.The Hebrew is wonderful; the text is well explained in the front (a major improvement over my other Greek-Hebrew Bible, with all the explanations written in Latin!) I am very, very pleased with this Bible.

Very happy with the product. The leather covering doesn't seem to be of the same high quality as other Bibles I own, but for the price this is nevertheless very good value. The references to the translated words are not intrusive if you don't need to use them, and there are two ribbons to hold your place in Old and New Testaments. Money well spent, and provides a good way to keep up my Greek and Hebrew even without a lot of time, as all the looking-up of words has been done for you.

Best bible I have laid my eyes on. Make sure you know basic Hebrew.

A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible (RHGB) ist genau das: eine kompakte Lesebibel für alle, die Hebräisch und Griechisch gelernt haben, Englisch verstehen und wieder öfter aus den Quellen schöpfen wollen. Der Apparat ist im Vergleich zu den bei der DBG erhältlichen Einzelausgaben, die ebenfalls ganz vorzüglich sind, allgemeiner gehalten (Grundbedeutungen des Wortes, nicht nur die spezielle Bedeutung an dieser Stelle wie in den DBG-Ausgaben) und ohne exakte grammatikalische Bestimmung (die die DBG-Ausgaben haben). Doch gerade das regt (bei mir) die richtigen Denkprozesse an, um zügig weiterlesen zu können, ohne mich in Bestimmungsfragen (Parsing) zu verlieren.Da beim Lesen der Grundtexte so vieles auf Anhieb klar wird, was bei Übersetzungen notwendigerweise dunkel bleibt, und die RHGB genau das so deutlich erleichtert, wirkt sie schier lesemagnetisch. Tatsächlich greife ich trotz meiner ausgezeichneten Bibelprogramme gerne zu dieser Lesebibel und lese gerne lange darin. Die Schrift ist groß genug und die verwendeten Schnitte sind im Hebräischen gut und im Griechischen zwar nicht optimal, aber noch erträglich (da sind die DBG-Ausgaben besser).Die bereits allseits bemängelten großen Nachteile bleiben: Das Papier ist zu dünn und dadurch nicht opak genug, und der Umschlag spottet jeder Beschreibung (auch das ist bei den DBG-Ausgaben besser, aber eben zweibändig). Bei einem so nützlichen Werk ist hochwertiges Material Pflicht, da der Preis den Absatz nicht beeinflusst. Doch die RHGB ist nur eine Übergangsbibel. Sobald die Lektüre auch ohne Apparat wieder flüssig funktioniert, wird sie sowieso dauerhaft durch die BHS und das NTG ersetzt. Da lässt sich der buchherstellerische Lapsus verschmerzen. Deshalb gibt es trotz dieser vorab bekannt gewesenen Einschränkungen die beste Bewertung für diesen Lesemagnet.

This is, quite simply, a handy resource for an intermediate student in the Biblical languages. It consists of a Greek New Testament (at the front, reading front-to-back) and a Hebrew Old Testament (at the back, reading back-to-front). The text is not exactly one of the standard critical editions, but is instead the base text underlying the NIV and TNIV (making it definitely more useful for preachers and scholars using those translations).Having said that, as a Bible for simply reading the original languages, it shines. All the common words are glossed in a mini-glossary at the end of each section, and the uncommon words are footnoted on each page; in other words, if you can figure out how to parse the cases/tenses/etc on your own, this volume eliminates the need for an open lexicon as you read.And that is the purpose of this Bible; not to be a critical edition, but to encourage the casual and personal devotional reading of the Scriptures in their original language. It certainly has done that for me, to the point of getting me digging back through my Hebrew grammar in order to be able to use the Hebrew side of it as much as I do the Greek side.

I was thrilled when I heard that Zondervan decided to combine A Reader's Greek New Testament and A Reader's Hebrew Bible into one volume. As someone who owns and uses those volumes on a routine basis, I am glad to have them in a single, convenient volume.This is an exceptional tool designed to make the actually reading of the Bible in the original languages much more accessible for those who have had instruction in Greek and Hebrew. As someone who teaches Greek and Hebrew to those preparing for ministry, I urge all of my students to purchse and use this as their primary Greek and Hebrew text. Armed with this tool, a pastor/student is equipped to integrate the original languages into their daily routine. There are several features of this volume that are particularly helpful.1) The footnoted, English glosses of all words that occur less than 100 times in the Hebrew Bible and 25 time in the Greek New Testament. This saves countless time searching through a lexicon for the rarer words.2)Inclusion of a list of glosses for words that occur more than 100 time in the Hebrew Bible and more than 25 time in the Greek New Testament . This feature is found at the end of the Scripture text and is arranged alphabetically (I use this feature more than I care to admit).3)The gray text used to indicate uncommon proper names in the Hebrew.4)Contextually sensitive glosses in the New Testament.5)Readable font. I find that the size of the Hebrew text is especially helpful for reading.Some reviews have noted that there is no textual apparatus in the Hebrew text and a half-hearted effort in the Greek text. I think that in someways this assists the volume in maintaining its focus on being a tool for reading the text. The introduction acknowledges that the importance of an edition with full textual apparatus for serious Hebrew scholars. Pratically, though the Hebrew textual apparatus is rarely of any exegetical importance in Hebrew and where it is of importance in the New Testament the various options have been set forth, though in a limited way. All in all I am glad with the decision that was made with regards to the apparatus.With regards to the cover issue, noted in other reviews, it seems to me that Zondervan found themselves caught in between the idea of producing a volume as a Bible that someone might carry to church and producing a tool for study. I personally think that it would be better to produce this as a simple hard back. This is my only quibble.In all, I am grateful for the excellent resource and glad that it has been made available.

Lange nach gesucht, unglaublich schön :)