Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 25/11/2003 18:21, Karl Randolph wrote:

> Dear Peter:
>
> My intention was never to be an aconoclast. Thus, when I started with the 
> Gesenius/BDB dictionaries, my notes (which have become a lexicon) started 
> with noting synonyms, antonyms, special usages and to try to give a tighter, 
> more ‘native speaker’ understanding of the words. It was only with reluctance 
> that I later came to contradict BDB, and then only when I understand clear 
> usage clues for a different definition.
>
> There are too many times I read XSD in a context where I see (often 
> undeserved) kind actions as volitional acts where there is no obligation to 
> fulfill.
>  
Well, here you confirm that you differ from Reinier in your 
understanding of the word. If you want to evaluate his lexicographical 
method, you need to either suspend your disagreement or pick another 
term which you understand in the same way.

I would be interested to see some of the cases you are referring to. But 
a discussion of the meaning of XESED should be a separate thread

> My concept of ‘loyalty’ often is a volitional action where the only 
> obligation to fulfill is the obligation to one’s actions he has chosen to do 
> and to people he has chosen to associate with.
>  
Is this your concept of 'loyalty' or your concept of XESED? It is more 
or less my concept of both. Loyalty is very often, though not always, to 
one who has been chosen voluntarily; one pledges one's loyalty to 
another voluntarily (although perhaps in return for some benefits), and 
then one has an obligation to fulfil that pledge. I'm not talking about 
obligation in the sense of coercion and slavery, but of willingly 
offered service. God's XESED is his faithfulness or loyalty to his 
covenant pledges to provide for his people; although in English we would 
not so often use 'loyalty' for the obligations of a greater to a lesser.

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