Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kirk Lowery" <kelowery AT cs.com>]

Friends, 

The co-chairs would like to ask everyone to edit their messages when  
responding to others. We've noticed that the size of the average post is  
growing, and most of the message is repeated material. 

Most email programs will "quote" the message one is reponding to and  
insert a copy of the message into your reply. Frequently, the program will 
 automatically add an angle bracket (>) or some other symbol at the left  
margin on each line like so: 

****** 
****** 

Harold R. Holmyard III <hholmyard AT ont.com> wrote on 30-01-2001 00:56: 

> Dear Dave, 
>  
> You say: 
>  
> > That said, the oft-repeated argument about `almah meaning "young 
> > woman [of marriageable age]" AS OPPOSED to "virgin" seems 
> > equally artificial to me; wouldn't a "young woman of marriageable 
> > age" be expected to be a virgin in that culture? 
>  
> This is the position I took in the paper on I mentioned. But I added a 
> Ugaritic reference suggesting virgin as a meaning for the Ugaritic 
> cognate to Hebrew "almah."  
>  
> Yours, 
> Harold Holmyard 
>  

******* 
******* 

Suppose I wanted to get a copy of the paper Harold wrote. The rest of the  
quoted material is irrelevant, so I EDIT OUT the rest of the message and  
add my comment thus: 

******** 
******** 

Harold R. Holmyard III <hholmyard AT ont.com> wrote on 30-01-2001 00:56: 

> This is the position I took in the paper on I mentioned. But I added a 
> Ugaritic reference suggesting virgin as a meaning for the Ugaritic 
> cognate to Hebrew "almah."  

Harold, how can we get a copy of that paper? 

Kirk 

******* 
******* 

There are many advantages of editing our messages. For one, it's more  
likely my message will get read and answered! Messages greater than one  
screenfull (about 25 lines) don't often get read. And if my comments are  
buried in a complex set of quotes and embedded quotes, they could likely  
be missed. The use of quoting makes clear who has said what, so there's  
less change of confusion and misunderstanding. 

This becomes a particular problem when the a thread (subject) is actively  
commented upon by many people over an extended period of time. 

So, please, delete all irrelevant parts of the the messages of others to  
which you are responding. Another suggestion: instead of reading the  
message and then replying to it, consider "replying" first to the message, 
and as you read the quoted copy, delete all parts to which you are not  
going to comment on.   

Thanks for your cooperation! 

Kirk 
on behalf of the B-Hebrew co-chairs 

________________________________________________________________________
Kirk E. Lowery, Ph.D.                         <Kirk AT leningradensis.org>
Associate Director, Westminster Hebrew Institute
General Editor, Project "eL", The XML Leningrad Codex
Chair, Computer Assisted Research Group, Society of Biblical Literature