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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Lexicography - (was Gen. 1:26--Connotation of the beth preposition)

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  • From: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Lexicography - (was Gen. 1:26--Connotation of the beth preposition)
  • Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 12:03:02 -0700

On Saturday 17 January 2004 01:46, Karl Randolph wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Polycarp66 AT aol.com
>
> >
> > There are two points here which interest me. I will mention one and deal
> > more with the other. I can't imagine why anyone would ever attempt to
> > claim that they "think" in an ancient language. I think it patently
> > false since there is really no way to carry on a meaningful conversation
> > in the language. Modern Hebrew isn't Biblical Hebrew.
>
> But I do think in Biblical Hebrew.
>
> No, it is not modern Hebrew. I don’t understand modern Hebrew. As a cognate
> language to Biblical Hebrew, I recognize many lexemes, but the grammar and
> many uses of lexemes don’t make sense. It’s a foreign language.
>
> Biblical Hebrew, on the other hand, I can read without translating. Often,
> when thinking about concepts I read in Tanakh, the thoughts come to my mind
> in Hebrew, sometimes only a phrase, sometimes two or three sentences at a
> time. It is not carrying on a conversation, it is not even fluent, but it
> is thoughts coming to my mind in Hebrew without translating from another
> language. If that isn’t “thinking in Hebrew” what is it?

Agreed. I do the same thing, both with biblical Hebrew and NT Greek. On
occasion I have caught myself thinking a Hebrew or Greek word or phrase in
the midst of a conversation. Once it even came out: I was talking with a
person in Spanish, and at a particular point my mind switched to Greek and I
finished a Spanish sentence with a Koine Greek (not modern, I don't know
modern Greek or Hebrew) word. The other fellow stared at me as if I had two
heads :-)

The point is, it is in fact possible to think in biblical Hebrew, and there
are many of us who do just that.

--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Insert clever quote here (or not)





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