Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Charles wrote:

>let's discuss Christian interpretations on lists devoted to Christianity
and
>the NT and Talmudic opinions on lists for rabbinics and Talmud. [..] This
list is
>not devoted, as I understand it, to the history of interpretation of the
>Hebrew Scriptures, but to Biblical Hebrew.

Pardon me for saying so, but I think Charles is 100% right.

There have been those (I don't have anyone in particular in mind, I just
remember reading various messages...) who have used this fringe idea of
ancient interpretations to make all sorts of posts. If we stick to the
simplest task at hand, struggling at the textface or at the context of its
production, we have less chance of falling into divisive theologically
loaded discussions or posting snide one-liners.

If we are dealing with what the text itself says, I can't see how there can
be the sorts of problems which are raising their heads at the moment. When
you bring in what Rabbi Fred or Church Father Bart says on the matter, you
might be raising some comment which might interest some of the subscribers,
but you are guaranteed going to be treading on other people's toes.

Someone else wrote:
>What we are seeing on this list is an attempt to silence challenges to the
>state religion.  You might as well get used to these challenges. They are
>not going to stop.

The logic here is incorrect. We are not getting challenges to the "state
religion", we are getting off-topic mainly theologically, mainly Christian,
mainly inerrantist, loaded posts which can have no other effect than being
divisive. If such posts do not stop, I predict that they will destroy the
list (as it is) in their inconsiderateness and their irrelevance to the
purpose of the list, ie getting at the untinged communications of the
writers of the OT/HB.

(Allowing so-called discussions about ancient interpretations potentially
opens up the door to this chaos. I would return here to Charles's comment
which I cited at the beginning of this post.)


Ian