Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 2/24/2004 8:12:34 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
kwrandolph AT email.com writes:
Maybe you do not want to view an unpointed text, but others may. After all, 
the points are not canonical, they just represent a tradition as it existed 
at 
the time of the Masorites, a tradition that may or may not be accurate 
according to original intent.

The reason that I started reading an unpointed text is because I found the 
points a distraction. There are enough times that I disagree with the points 
that I do not like them there, and for the vast majority of the time that I 
agree 
with them, I found they unnecessarily cluttered up the page. Hence I prefer 
to read an unpointed text. And for fun, I use a pre-exilic (Hebrew, not 
Aramaic) font.

(I did not catalog the times I disagree with the points, after all, I was 
just reading, not making a scholarly work.)

There are times I found that the points make the text complex, sometimes 
unintelligeable, but with a change in points of a key word or two, a simple, 
easily understood passage consistent with its context would leap out.
_________

I think most of us use a pointed text.  I must confess though that the points 
almost might as well not be there for all the attention I pay to them.  There 
are times, however, when they come in handy.  I remember when I first started 
learning Hebrew I wouldn't have known what to do without them, but in time 
they seem to be not so much a distraction or a cluttering up of the text but 
simply a part of the woodwork.  It is nice though to have the tradition to 
fall 
back on when a passage becomes a bit dicey.  For this reason alone I would be 
loathe to part with them.  

Regarding your font:  What font do you use?  Is there a comparable font for 
Windows -- preferably, indeed almost mandatorily, a unicode font (I believe 
you 
said you use a MAC)?

gfsomsel