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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] soferim vs. sopherim

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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] soferim vs. sopherim
  • Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:59:20 +0200

It's a matter of convention. Academic Bible scholars usually follow the "Christian" tradition of transliterating a "soft" or undotted Hebrew Pe as "ph", since in Greek it was rendered with a Phi. Jewish scholars dealing with rabbinic literature (such as the Talmud), as well as most modern Israelis, prefer "f". I spell my son's name "Asaph" in English, while most Israelis with the same name would write "Assaf".

Yigal Levin

----- Original Message -----


On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 05:31:39PM -0500, Oun Kwon wrote:
As written in English, soferim and sopherim are from the same Hebrew word, I
believe.

I am a little confused though, since when I google it, each does give off
different listing. Basically soferim = something of Talmud; whereas sopherim
= scribes. On the other hand the singular sofer and sopher seems same.

I hope I am not making a fool myself. Can you help clear my ignorance in
Hebrew?

Thank you. And Happy New Year.

To my knowledge there is no difference in those terms (even i hebrew not!).

Petr Tomasek






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