Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Peter:

I hesitate spending even a little on a book that I already know I will use 
only very sparingly. When I had regular access to the BDB dictionary, I was 
not impressed by what according to my standards appeared to be rather sloppy 
lexicography. To me, it appears that that “sloppiness” is at least in part 
philosophically biased. The only advantage it has over the tools I presently 
have is its references to cognate languages which, though useful, must be 
used with caution if needed at all.

As for calling BDB’s philosophy anti-Semitic, I stand by it. True, its main 
target is Christianity as understood by the Reformers, but one of the ways to 
accomplish that goal is to denigrate the intellectual and historical 
accomplishments of ancient Israel, which is anti-Semitic. How can it not be 
anti-Semitic? Delegitimizing a people’s ancient accomplishments is one way 
that belittles their descendents today. The German philosophy that was the 
basis for Gesenius’ work has been refined and developed, and is still taught 
in theological schools in Europe and America.

More responses are interspersed below.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>

> On 13/11/2003 13:08, Karl Randolph wrote:
>
> >Peter:
> >
> >Didn’t you just libel me? Or is it just your opinion, which makes it not 
> libel?
> >  
> >
> My defence is that I wrote what was true, or what you had just said was 
> true.
What I just said is true? Then it’s not a wild guess.

> >As for BDB, they were students of Gesenius, and Gesenius was a member of the 
> German rationalist school of the early 19th century. From what I have seen of 
> that philosophical school, particularly as it pertains to their treatment of the 
> Bible and ancient Israel, I don’t see how it is not anti-Semitic. However, this 
> is a “platonic” anti-Semitism that does not advocate violence. Is there anything 
> in this paragraph that is not accurate?
> >  
> >
> The individual statements may be true, or maybe not. Actually probably 
> not, as Gesenius died in 1842 and Brown, Driver and Briggs were still 
> active in 1906. But the logic "A was B's student. B believed X. 
> Therefore A believed X." is not valid. This is attaching guilt by 
> association.

As an amateur musician, I am a student of Bach. By that, I study Bach’s music 
and incorporate what I learn from it into my own music. There is no way I met 
Bach personally, but I find it easy to incorporate lessons from Bach because 
I agree with him philosophically. Likewise, BDB were students of Gesenius and 
as far as I can tell, agreed with his philosophical presuppositions as well. 
Some of the details may have been different, but the general framework was 
the same. (It is from sources outside this discussion group that I have seen 
indications of the philosophical beliefs of both Gesenius and BDB.)
> >As I wrote earlier, I do not have access to BDB’s dictionary, so I was 
> relying on previous posts to this list as a basis for my response. If previous 
> posts are accurate, and I have no reason to doubt them unless shown otherwise, 
> then how is my response inaccurate? It fits the philosophic pattern.
> >  
> >
> Perhaps you should look at the book (which is widely available and 
> inexpensive) before accusing it in generalised terms ("When a word is 
> found in both Biblical Hebrew and another language, they seem to make 
> the presupposition that the word is a loan word into Hebrew.") on the 
> basis of reports of a small and unrepresentative sample of its contents. 
> Anyway, which particular posts concerning which BDB entries led you to 
> this conclusion? I don't recall anything on the list which could justify it.

In particular that’s how I read Elaine Keown’s posting on this subject on the 
11th. Do you think I read more into it than what is there? I know in other 
aspects, e.g. writing, theological concepts, etc., that’s exactly what BDB 
did, so it fits the pattern if they did with lexemes as well.
> --
> Peter Kirk

--
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