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  • From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Jeremiah 8:8 - the pen of the scribes
  • Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 12:14:33 -0500

Dear Bryon:

Thanks for helping me get on this list. Yes I do find the discussions
interesting.

In English, we talk of a dishonest person as “having a lying tongue.” Does
the tongue have volition of its own? Everyone recognizes that the tongue is
merely the instrument through which that person tells his lies. Hence, the
phrase is an idiom.

Likewise, when Jeremiah wrote of “scribes’ deceptive pen” , he was not
ascribing volition to the pen, rather the pen in the hand of the scribes was
an instrument of deception.

There is a popular 19th century theory that implies that ancient Jews were
barely up from knuckle-dragging troglodites who, by some accident, acquired
semi-literacy but incapable of irony, satire and other advanced literary
usages (I overstate the case). I don’t buy that theory, therefore I have no
problem reading this as idiomatic.

Further evidence that this is idiomatic is grammar. When looking for the
object of “made” we find three words, “(et sheqer soperim”. If we read these
three words as idiomatic, then we have a clean sentence without any dangling
words or phrases. If “sheqer” is used adjectivally here, as I believe it is,
the fact that it is singular indicates that it modifies “(et” and not
“soperim” which is plural.

Finally, the phrase makes sense as an idiom.

As far as the nature of the scribes, it is my understanding that up to fairly
recently there was a profession to write out all sorts of legal and official
documents, not just religious texts. The professionals who did this task were
chosen because of their fine handwriting. Thus Jeremiah, though he himself
was literate, called on Barukh , a professional scribe, to write out his
words. But it appears that most scribes of that time were quite willing to
use their profession to benefit dishonest purposes.

Yours, Karl.

You wrote:

> Hi Karl,
>
> Congratulations on successfully joining the forum. I hope you enjoy the
> exchange here.
>
> Do I have this right? You think the pen was deceptive; I think *making* the
> pen was deceptive.
>
> In your reading of Jer 8:8, to what exactly do you think the figure
> "deceptive pen" refers? Maybe the act of altering the holy writ or
> generating new, false teachings?
>
> I guess I am thinking of the scribe as a copyist/preserver of texts, one who
> is supposed to be devoted, with both pen and manner of life, to a corpus.
> Maybe I shouldn't be thinking of the scribe in such a narrow way, but it
> seems to make sense in the context of the analogies to the stork, dove, etc.
> in Jer 8:7. Wise men, scribes, prophets, and so forth, by definition,
> should know torah welll enough to be reproveable. Remarkably, these
> pen-makers do not know their text.
>
> I think my understanding of the scribe also is consistent with the
> counter-example or foil of the faithful scribe Barukh, who is featured later
> in Jer.
>
> As to the meaning of sheqer, I admit "lie" is a bit of a paraphrase. I
> think the word refers specifically to a breach of faith.
>
> Shalom, Bryan
>
--
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