Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

Title: Re: Zech 8:14-15 (was Judges 13:5 and 13:7)

Rolf appears to claim that the text of BHS has been emended from that of the Leningrad Codex on the basis of grammatical theory. Is this actually true? If so it is in direct contradiction to what the editors write, on p.XII in the prolegomena: “2. TEXT. We have thought it best to reproduce the text of the latest hand if L with close fidelity. We have accordingly refrained from <<removing obvious scribal errors;>>” The only admitted exception is that “Raphe has been almost consistently omitted”. Rolf, are you claiming that the editors did not do what they said they did?

 

I agree that emendations are suggested in the footnotes, and these are often highly conjectural (and I usually ignore them). But these emendations are not incorporated in the main text.

 

Peter Kirk

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Rolf Furuli [mailto:furuli AT online.no]
Sent: 08 March 2002 12:51
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: Zech 8:14-15 (was Judges 13:5 and 13:7)

 

<snip>

 

"In the light of Kittel's remarks ..there can be no doubt at all as to the meaning of the implied words "obvious mistakes and errors". They refer to any diviation from the rules and laws of Hebrew grammar. and it is just this attitude towards the Hebrew Bible, to give the right priority to The Grammar and to make the Scriptures conform to it, which I refuted by saying: "Whether he admits it or not, the exegete assumes that the laws of the Hebrew language, as laid down in the Hebrew grammar, are binding for the Bible. Whenever a discrepancy is discovered between the Bible and these "established" grammatical laws, the Bible is the loser: the text is "emended" so as to conform with the grammar... It is high time that bible scholars... approach the Bible not as schoolmasters teaching the prophets how Hebrew sentences should be formed and Hebrew words spelled, but as humble students of thses masters of Hebrew."

 

Exactly the same editorial attitude is seen in the BHS, particularly in the notes at the bottom of the pages where emendations often are suggested on the basis of grammatical theory rather than textual evidence. And not only that, but modern translators have exactly the same attitude: grammatical theory is given priority over the context.

 

<snip>

 

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