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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Elaine Keown <elaine_keown AT yahoo.com>
  • Cc: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Other languages in the Tanakh
  • Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 16:48:47 -0800

On 11/11/2003 15:16, Elaine Keown wrote:

...

As for BDB, I think they were philosophical
anti-Semites. When a word is found in both Biblical
Hebrew and another language


I am sorry to hear this--I did not know.

Karl doesn't know either. He says he only "thinks". In fact he speculates, and rather wildly. He then makes an outrageous charge, one which would be libellous if the people in question were still alive. Of course he could defend himself from a libel charge by proving the truth of his allegation. But presumably he cannot do this as he only says "I think".

The facts are that in most cases of biblical Hebrew words with apparent cognates in other languages, BDB simply lists the apparent cognates without comment. Some of these are clearly derived from Hebrew rather than vice versa e.g. the "NH" ones which refer to post-biblical Hebrew. There is certainly no intention to claim that this list of words is an etymology in the sense of a history of derivation as in some modern English etc dictionaries. There are a few specific cases of speculation on possible loan word derivations, but these tend to be marked with "perhaps" and a reference to a contemporary scholar who had no doubt originated the speculation. And speculation is inconsistent with presupposition.

Karl, can you perhaps give me a few specific examples of BDB entries where there is a "presupposition that the word is a loan word into Hebrew"?

-- Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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