Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

My advisor, Baruch Levine, said once that
reading the bible in translation is like kissing
your lover through a sheet.
Liz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randall Buth [mailto:ButhFam AT compuserve.com]
> Sent: Thu, March 14, 2002 1:32 PM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Cc: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: re: Question: Off topic? Why study
> 
> 
> shalom, 
> 
> Ian Goldsmith katav:
> 
> >Whilst I enjoy studying Hebrew very
> >much indeed, I find it difficult to give a reason,
> >when asked, why anyone else should learn Hebrew.
> >
> >I would very much appreciate your encouraging views.
> 
> Lot's of answers for lots of audiences. 
> 
> I saw that Liz mentioned 'wordplays'. 
> Yes, plus 1/3 of the Hebrew Bible is poetry, and as everyone 
> knows, poetry is not just content, it is content plus form. 
> 
> Ian mentioned "Hebrew", which opens up more:
> Qumran texts,
> Rabbinic texts.
> 
> Fully sifting through a text can only be done in the original. 
> 
> If people have done that in any language, it's hard to understand 
> why they wouldn't understand.
> But 
> if people have never done that in any language it would be hard 
> to explain "why" in Hebrew. It's called 'close reading' in literary 
> circles, and you just can't do that in translation.
> 
> blessings,
> 
> Randall Buth
> Jerusalem
> 
> 
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