Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> > They only seem to be smugness and self-stimulation.
> >
> from a mostly silent lurker - sheesh how rude can you get?  most of those
> oral traditions were put into writing starting not long after the 2nd
> century bce surely you could admit someone who lived back then might quite
> possibly know more about what went on - who said what and what it actually
> meant in terms of idiomatic speach and in relation to the historical times -
> that isn't smugness - its plain and simple logic.
> 
We all come into this field with a certain amount of faith in 
something.  For Shoshanna it's faith in her religious heritage, for a 
certain other whom I won't name it's faith in denying everything he 
possibly can, for others of us it's faith in the Christian framework 
with its attendant views about the Hebrew Scriptures, for still others 
it's faith in science or archaeology or whatever.  Granted that we're 
(officially) supposed to keep faith-based arguments out of it and be 
as cross-cultural as possible, none of us ever fully achieves it.  As 
soon as one says "this is legend" or "obviously a miraculous 
element has been injected into this" or such, one is making a faith 
statement.  When Shoshanna says that the Jewish greats of the 
past were led by God in their interpretations, she's making a faith 
statement.  The only difference is that the latter is easier to 
recognize than the former by the wider audience.

My two piyms' worth.
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Don't let your mind wander.  
It's too little to be left alone."