Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 11/11/2003 15:16, Elaine Keown wrote:

> ...
>
> > As for BDB, I think they were philosophical
> > anti-Semites. When a word is found in both Biblical
> > Hebrew and another language
> >    
>
> I am sorry to hear this--I did not know.
>  
Karl doesn't know either. He says he only "thinks". In fact he 
speculates, and rather wildly. He then makes an outrageous charge, one 
which would be libellous if the people in question were still alive. Of 
course he could defend himself from a libel charge by proving the truth 
of his allegation. But presumably he cannot do this as he only says "I 
think".

The facts are that in most cases of biblical Hebrew words with apparent 
cognates in other languages, BDB simply lists the apparent cognates 
without comment. Some of these are clearly derived from Hebrew rather 
than vice versa e.g. the "NH" ones which refer to post-biblical Hebrew. 
There is certainly no intention to claim that this list of words is an 
etymology in the sense of a history of derivation as in some modern 
English etc dictionaries. There are a few specific cases of speculation 
on possible loan word derivations, but these tend to be marked with 
"perhaps" and a reference to a contemporary scholar who had no doubt 
originated the speculation. And speculation is inconsistent with 
presupposition.

Karl, can you perhaps give me a few specific examples of BDB entries 
where there is a "presupposition that the word is a loan word into Hebrew"?

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