Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Douglas L Kasten <doug.kasten AT juno.com>]

Jim West,

With Mr. Rochman you some time ago entered into an ugly confrontation
which became public on the list.  Based on the below-quoted e-mail it
seems you seem intent on being unpleasant once more.  If "Tsadowq" did
not use his real name in this mailing, then surely he can be kindly
requested to do so rather than be accused of 'hiding'.  I detect nothing
sinister in the tone of his message.

Further, and worse, your tone is demeaning, and what you mistake for a
straightforward answer is nothing more than rude behavior under the guise
of a 'scholarly' direct response.  Among the true scholars I've been
priviledged to work with, your manner would get you a one-way ticket out
of the room, and properly so.  You ARE direct, but you are not kind. 
Kindly cease this unpleasantness.  While I am inclined to agree with your
position, I recoil from your behavior.  If you'd like an example of the
kind of thing I'd like to see in response to Tsadowq, see Peter Kirk's
response, the tone of which is to my mind most appropriate.

Regards,
Doug

To the  listkeepers:
Will Jim West's tone be tolerated?  It's quite wearying to those of us, a
strong majority, who wish to read exchanges done with a tone of scholarly
exchange, even when one party thinks the other rather unscholarly.  

On Wed, 16 Jun 1999 09:23:58 -0400 Jim West <jwest AT Highland.Net> writes:
> At 08:30 AM 6/16/99 -0400, you wrote:
> 
> >  PROVERBS 25
> >  2) It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but
> >      the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
> >
> >Sometimes, smart men are not as smart as they think they are.
> >
> >In Hope and Love.
> >Keep the Faith, brethren.
> >Tsadowq 
> 
> First, it is only polite to use your actual name when you post.  
> Your
> cryptic self designation only tells us that you are hiding.
> Second, this is an academic list and not a newsgroup where various 
> idiotic
> theories unsubstantiated by fact can be bantered around by folk who 
> know
> less about the subject then your fictionalized auto mechanic.
> Third, your supposition that the codes are legitimate and that 
> gematria can
> really tell us something about the text is simply wrong.  Period.  
> There is
> truth and error- and you are on the side of error on this issue.  
> Gematria
> says more about the expositor than it does about the text.  In fact, 
> it says
> everything about the expositor and nothing about the text.  Nothing 
> at all.
> And neither do the so called "codes".
> Finally, all such efforts to find some hidden meaning in the text 
> are merely
> gnostic attempts to glean heavenly secrets from mundane facts.  Did 
> you know
> that your efforts were gnostic?  Well they are.
> 
> About my tone.  The genteel of the list appear to have a little 
> trouble with
> straightforward answers.  I have never understood that.  But in this 
> age of
> political correctness its much easier to kill an answer by the death 
> of a
> thousand qualifications than it is to merely say yes or no.  I say 
> no to the
> gnosticizing tendencies of the half learned.  "A little knoweldge is 
> a
> dangerous thing" says the old proverb.  Indeed.  In light of that 
> there is
> simply a lot of danger in internet discussion lists because there 
> are
> clearly a lot of folk who have not a clue as to what they are 
> talking about.
> Small wonder that the theologians of the middle ages discussed 
> things in
> Latin so that the unlearned hordes would not be confused more than 
> they
> already were.
> 
> Elitist?  Probably.  But elitism is a good thing when it protects 
> the search
> for truth from pure stupidity.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jim
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Jim West, ThD
> email- jwest AT highland.net
> web page-  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
> 
> 
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: doug.kasten AT juno.com
> To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
> $subst('Email.Unsub')
> To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.
> 

___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.