Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Deborah Millier <deborahmillier AT yahoo.com>]

Ken Penner wrote:

> To voice my agreement with 
> Harold on the point of 
> languages in use in the
> first century, the presence 
> of non-literary Hebrew notes 
> among the Dead Sea Scrolls 
> (besides the Qumran DSS), in 
> conjunction with Segal's 
> proofs in _A Grammar of 
> Mishnaic Hebrew_ should leave 
> no doubt that Hebrew was a 
> spoken language at the time. 
> Opinions to the contrary are 
> the remnant of scholarship 
> undertaken before Segal's 
> grammar (1927) and before the 
> discovery of the Dead Sea 
> Scrolls (c.50 years ago), as 
> I argue in a presentation to 
> the CSBS last year,
> 
> http://s91279732.onlinehome.us/papers/hebrais

Ken, just a few days ago, both John C. Poirier and
Randall Buth recommended your above-mentioned paper to
the synoptic-L group in reference to a discussion they
were having about Jesus speaking Hebrew (Aramaic?) to
Paul on the Damascus Road.  In his brief post, Buth
challenged a minor point of yours concerning the term
RABBOUNI (i.e. "my lord").  He claimed that RABBOUNI
was neither known from Hebrew *or* from Aramaic texts.
 Citing Kutcher, Buth went on to assert that RABBOUN
was a western pronounciation while RIBBON was
influenced by eastern spelling conventions (cf. Targ.
Onkelos), and that the Codex Kaufmann, itself now
recognized as "a depository of authentic Mishnaic
Hebrew," provides us with the perspective to recognize
that in "... both Hebrew and Aramaic the western form
was RABBOUN, while in the east the form was RIBBON."

You can access Buth's comments in full at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/synoptic-l/message/9620

SHABBAT SHALOM,
-- Michael Millier

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