Contact: Shlomo Karni, 277-1436 Media Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915

Feb. 11, 2003 UNM PROFESSOR AUTHORS DICTIONARY OF BASIC BIBLICAL HEBREW Shlomo Karni, Ph.D., professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of New Mexico, is the author of a new book, "Dictionary of Basic Biblical Hebrew," (Carta, The Israel Map & Publishing Company, Ltd., Jerusalem, Israel). A learner's tool for students of the English Bible who want to delve deeper into the meaning of scripture in its original language, the dictionary contains more than 6,000 of the most common words found in the Hebrew Bible. Fully cross-referenced by root and stem, the Hebrew entries are identified by the part of speech, gender and number. Proper names are also explained based on their root. Karni, who is also UNM professor emeritus in electrical and computer engineering, said he worked on the hardcover dictionary for almost four years. "The idea came to me from two main sources - the classes on biblical Hebrew that I taught at UNM between 1972 and retirement and friends in Bible study groups," Karni said. "There simply was no such dictionary for the lay person. Paperback, general dictionaries are not adequate, and the large concordances are mainly for scholars." Copies of the book will be available at the UNM Bookstore Feb. 27. Karni will sign copies that afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. Copies can also be purchased from the North American distributor at www.eisenbrauns.com. ###

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981