Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: targums

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>
  • To: list b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: targums
  • Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 05:35:43 +0800


Ian Hutchesson wrote:

> At 11.17 15/05/99 -0500, Jack Kilmon wrote:
>
> >This is too simplistic an analysis of the language usage of the DSS.
>
> Yes, a thousand texts and less than two hundred Aramaic ones. That's pretty
> simple. Three dialects of Hebrew. Two of Aramaic.
>
> >I see 20% of the texts in Aramaic as very significant.
>
> Well, yes. Perhaps a fifth of the population used Aramaic.

Ian,

IMHO, it is *you* that has the faulty logic here. You are taking a body of
evidence
from a single community and generalizing it for the entire "nation". While
it may be
(and quite likely is) the case that the Qumran community used Hebrew
extensively,
maybe even almost exclusively, that in no way demands that the community was a
representative of the populus as a whole. And, were the Qumran community
primarily
Hebrew, the presence of 20% Aramaic *is very* significant.

You're going to say that I'm guessing, but you keep failing to acknowledge
that you,
too, are guessing and generalizing without specific evidences. In fact, you
are
ignoring the fact that the targums were indeed written, and written for some
purpose.
If Hebrew was so predominant in the populus in general, then please explain
the need
for Aramaic targums?

As far as Jack's Latin illustration, that pattern has the support of holding
true in
other cultures that had an "elitist" language. For example, if one were to
look at
the legal and educational texts of the Philippines, one would conclude that
English is
by far the predominate language. The fact of the matter is that, while
almost all the
people know some English, few are comfortable with it, and even fewer speak
it as
their primary language. Both of you are guessing, but Jack is the only one
of you
that at least admits it.

Paul
--
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Isabela, Rep. of Philippines

zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page