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  • From: George F Somsel <gfsomsel AT juno.com>
  • To: kwrandolph AT email.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Doctorates or not (was Re: XSD)
  • Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 11:42:35 -0400

On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 09:12:18 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
writes:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
> >
> > On Thursday 01 September 2005 17:35, Peter Kirk wrote:
> > > On 01/09/2005 22:42, Bill Rea wrote:
>
> > >
> > > >... Several participants have run down the current
> > > >system of peer-reviewed journals, calling them things like
> ``incestuous''.
> > > >Such criticisms are just hot air. The shear volume of research
> output
> > > >requires some mechanism to sift the wheat from the chaff.
>
> >From those within the publish or perish racket,
> I have heard worse.
>
> The problem is not the system, but the people
> in the system. They bring their own beliefs and
> prejudices to their gate keeping, sometimes
> keeping out valuable research while allowing in
> some mediocre at best work. The further this
> veers from hard sciences like physics and
> chemistry, the more likely to occur.
>
>
> > > In Karl's
> > > >case he has said that he had a chance to do a Ph.D. but is glad
> that
> > > >he didn't. He doesn't appear to work at any place which
> supports
> > > >research into the Hebrew language. Those are the choices he
> made, ...
> > >
> > > I don't know much about Karl's personal circumstances, but there
> may be
> > > compelling reasons which we don't know about why he has no
> choice about
> > > not working at such a place. One very probable one is that he
> probably
> > > needs to earn a living, and paid positions in Hebrew research
> are rather
> > > few. In other words, this may not be his choice at all.
> > >
> If I had had my choice, I would have gotten the
> PhD. But it was not to be. I would have liked
> to be a professor like my father and
> grandfather, but without a PhD that is pretty
> much out of the question.
>
> On the other hand, there are certain advantages
> to being largely self taught. One is that I am
> not impressed by anyone else. I don't know the
> names of famous researchers so I am not in awe
> of them. As far as I am concerned, their
> theories are no better than anyone else's.
> Secondly, by having studied only Biblical
> Hebrew excepting enough Aramaic to read the
> Aramaic portions of Daniel, Ezra and the verse
> in Jeremiah, I now have a feel as to how the
> language works. Often I can't give detailed
> grammatical rules, but I know how the language
> acts. Had I had the opportunity to study for
> the PhD, I was looking forward to studying
> Aramaic, Ugaritic, Mishnaic and even modern
> Hebrew, but I now realize that my "feel" for
> the language would have been corrupted by the
> other similar languages.
>
> For example, my feel for English, my mother
> tongue, has been corrupted by German, my German
> by Norwegian, my Norwegian by .... Because they
> have similar grammar, similar vocabulary, even
> similar expressions, I sometimes find myself
> making constructs from one language in another
> where it is not appropriate. But my Cantonese,
> other than making new lexemes by combining old
> ones, doesn't resemble any of them, therefore
> the propensity to bring in constructs from
> other languages is much, much reduced. While
> even my understanding of koiné Greek is
> influenced by other indo-european languages,
> that is not true of Biblical Hebrew.
>
> To give a practical example, when I looked at
> the "Joash stone" now known as a forgery, I
> noticed several things that just didn't "feel
> right". But the "experts", unnamed in the news
> articles I read, didn't notice any of them.
> Instead the published reports mentioned that
> they focused on the use of LBDQ near the bottom
> of the stone, saying that it stuck out like a
> sore thumb as a modern usage. I was puzzled as
> that was one that I missed, as it is so used in
> 2 Chronicles 34:10 and possibly also in 2 Kings
> 12:8 (depending on how one points it). I now
> conclude that my disappointment at not being
> able to get a PhD has an upside as well.
>
> I suspect that the research that I have done in
> Biblical Hebrew vocabulary is pretty much as
> much as had I gotten a PhD.
>
_____________

In other words, the grapes were probably sour anyway.

george
gfsomsel
___________




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