Religion Books...Buying Used or New, Bookstore or Online, buy or checkout from library

[11Q13]

I'm making this thread because I have a specific question, but maybe others would like to use it to talk about their book questions as well.

I'm taking the beginner biblical Hebrew summer intensive at Harvard, and while it would seem that language courses would be pretty black and white about required books I have a question regarding the lexicon. I figured you guys would be the ones to ask. The syllabus calls for:

Brown, Francis, et al. The Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English lexicon: with an appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic: Coded with the Numbering System from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. 7th ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996.

I understand that this is the pretty standard (cheap) Hebrew lexicon but I was wondering if this is the required text because there is no expectation to continue study in Hebrew, rather than because it's the best. I was told that The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT) is much better and up to date, though the price tag is quite incredible. So my question is, should I just bite the bullet now and buy the HALOT? Will I need Brown, Driver, Briggs if I do buy the HALOT?

I plan to continue for at least another year's worth of Hebrew, and I am interested especially in late Second Temple, when the DSS entries only present in the HALOT would be especially handy, and likewise in the other ancient Semitic cultures like Ugarit which the HALOT would be better for.

What do most students do? Would it be better to just use a library copy of HALOT and save my money? How much should I expect to pay for the whole thing used? Also how many volumes are there, each website seems to list a different number, 2, 3, 5...

[JonathanEdwards]

BDB isn't the most recent, and the way it's organized can be difficult. I actually think the best basic lexicon for a balance of recent scholarship, ease of use, and coverage is Holladay. If BDB is what the prof wants, though, then don't be the only student in class without it.

[EarlyReader]

BDB isn't the most recent, and the way it's organized can be difficult. I actually think the best basic lexicon for a balance of recent scholarship, ease of use, and coverage is Holladay. If BDB is what the prof wants, though, then don't be the only student in class without it.

I conquer. BDB is over 100 years old, outdated in many respects (not all, it still has some valuable detail), poorly organized for beginners, and completely outdated in terms of its comparative semitics (its main comparative language is Arabic!). Holladay is great because it is cheap, and offers a concise summary of HALOT that will serve your needs well 90% of the time. I would definitely buy Holladay. If you are interested in having your own copy of HALOT, the best option IMO is to invest in the digital version through Bibleworks/Accordance. Its something like $130, which is less than you will pay for one volumne hard copy, its searchable, hyperlinked, etc... Also, if you are studying Greek, you can get HALOT and BDAG together for a pittance ($230ish).