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  • From: Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>
  • To: Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>
  • Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Modern Hebrew 1
  • Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 19:58:04 -0400


shalom Qobbi, (="Jim", ya`aqov)

Shavuot and Shabbat delayed a response.

>in short- to suggest that if one does not read modern hebrew- or control
it
>(whatever that is supposed to mean) then one isnt a good scholar of
ancient
>texts is a gross misstatement and falsity. one can be a profoundly good
>exegete and not have any inkling of modern hebrew.

Your comment seems to make a common misunderstanding. No
language skills, ancient or modern, make a person a good exegete,
scholar or analyst. But good scholarship will always be improved with
better language skills. Modern Hebrew contributes to that, as may
become clear in following emails.
(RB)
>>It's hard for a school to require something at a PhD level that would
>>naturally have been expected in the first two-three years of a first
>>degree.
(JW)>
>what do you mean *naturally expected*? are you implying that nature
>itself teaches us that we should have mastery of modern hebrew before
>we can be competent in exegesis? where exactly does nature teach us
>this lesson????

(RB)
Mother-tongue English allows "naturally" to exegete as "commonly
expected". Initial language learning is commonly assigned the status
of the first two years of university in the US.

(JW)
>i await your articulate response.
(RB)
ani mode lexa `al sifrexa. atta biqqashta mimmeni
ma`ane `al ha`erex ha-rav
asher la-safa bat yamenu.
ha-nifla me`enexa
im lo hitbonanta
ki katavti el Trevor
bisfat `Ever mime qedem?

she'elat ha-niv heHadash ba'a.
reshit kol ha-kol nishma` --
ki yisha'alu anshe-da`at.
lo shama`ti tlunnot
`al da`at ha-safa ha-Hadasha
me`ish asher shoTeT vayydabber bah.
bemiqre venimtsa halaze,
ha-davar yisha'er veqam bil`adav
ki ha-qahal ha-rav yeHeretsu et ha-mishpaT
vehe`idu ki yeTivu asher yuxlu lishloT ba-safa.

shavua` Tov,

Randall Buth



  • Modern Hebrew 1, Randall Buth, 05/18/2002

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