Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 25/09/2003 11:41, Jason Hare wrote:

> ...
>
>
> All I can say about this is YES! I feel like I'm venting a bit, but people
> need to get over the idea that "if I use Strong, then I don't have to know
> anything about Hebrew/Greek to understand what the Bible says." What a sad
> state we are in. I have come up against this on many occasions personally.
> And I am disheartened every time.
>
> Blessings to you, Peter...
>
> Jason Hare
> Missouri Southern State University
> Joplin, MO
> student of languages
>
>
>
>
>  
Thank you, Jason.

To be fair to Strong, his scholarship was good for his time, early 19th 
century, and his Hebrew transliteration scheme is not too bad as an 
attempt to represent one tradition of pronunciation of Hebrew (not the 
modern Israeli one) for monolingual English speakers - i.e., to quote an 
example I found by chance, the syllable "-ale" should be pronounced like 
the English word "ale", which is a reasonable approximation for tsere-lamed.

But much better aids have been produced over the last 150 years. So if 
someone really can't learn Hebrew properly, they should use modern aids.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/