For centuries the Hebrew Bible had been the province of Jewish scholars. Christian interpreters focused instead on the Latin. But with the advent of the Reformation came a resurgence of interest in the original languages of Scripture. Christian scholars brought to the task a certain understanding of grammar not shared by earlier Jewish interpreters, whose interest in Hebrew waned as concern with the living tradition of rabbinic Judaism waxed. Largely European preoccupation with the form of words, their history, and their relationship to other words prevailed for centuries, and the narrative...