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  • From: FPutnam AT biblical.edu
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] chiasmus and topic
  • Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 16:29:33 -0500

Hi, Joe.

Great topic!

I am delighted to hear that you are working on the basis of verbal
parallels, and encourage you to pursue this approach, rather than the
far-too-common topical labels used by scholars (which tend to demonstrate
their ingenuity at developing chiastically correspondences that
conveniently fall into chiasms). <wry grin> I also encourage you to base
your work on work on *explicit* verbal parallels, rather than semantic
domains. The latter are certainly a legitimate linguistic function, but
are too open to the manipulation that (once again) demonstrates scholarly
ingenuity.

IMHO, we need to be extremely cautious in attempting to discern the
general significance of any [chiastic] structures, as well as of any
particular example thereof. Does a chiasm emphasize the terms in the
means, in the extremes, or in some combination thereof? Without a good
deal of input from cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics, as well as
materials from comparative literature--especially literature where we have
some control over the sources--we are merely guessing when we say, "The
author used a chiasmus here because ..." Adele Berlin's discussion of the
signficance of [so-called] word pairs in light of psycho-linguistic
research into word association illustrates this point.

Finally, from time to time, I notice chiasms in student papers (e.g., the
order of a list of nouns on page 3 is reversed on page 7, or two verbs are
used a second time, but in the opposite order). I have not kept score, but
I can confidently say that few students to whom I have pointed this out
realized that they had created a chiasm (well, one or two have done it
just to see if I would notice). When the chiastic words are closer to each
other, the student usually says something like, "I just changed the order
for variety". [This doesn't prove anything, it merely illustrates the need
for great humility when assessing the significance of literary forms from
a world long ago and far away.] :-)

Fred

Frederic Clarke Putnam, Ph.D.
Professor of Old Testament
Biblical Theological Seminary
Hatfield, Pennsylvania
215.368.5000x150
>From kwrandolph AT email.com Tue Mar 9 14:19:18 2004
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From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 14:19:16 -0500
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] War machines and missiles in 2 chronicles
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----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>

> On 07/03/2004 20:45, Karl Randolph wrote:
>
> >But Peter:
> >
> >Here is a case where the root has the meaning of sending out, and the
> >context is that of weaponry, putting two
> >and two together we get four, i.e. this is weaponry that is sent out,
> >namely projectiles (or missiles). The concept
> >of projectiles also fits the context. To use the generalized term
> >"weapon", though technically correct, is a tad
> >misleading.
> >
> >
>
> Well, we must avoid the etymological fallacy that the meaning of a word
> is determined by its root consonants. But in a case like this it is
> reasonable partial evidence, if supported e.g. by ancient versions and
> interpretations, that these weapons were in fact projectiles or
> missiles, either in general or of a specific kind. So I would be happy
> with a translation "projectile", or even "missile" if modern
> rocket-propelled ones are excluded. What I would not be happy with is a
> guess about a specific kind of projectile.
>

Nor would I be happy. Some specific types of
projectiles are already elsewhere defined
[e.g. XC for arrow, )BN for stone, etc.] so in
this context I say that this is a generic term
for projectile.
> >
> > …
>
> Where the definition has been forgotten, surely it is better to admit
> that and be generic than to use highly unreliable methods to reconstruct
> a definition.

Agreed.

Where we disagree is a matter of degree rather
than kind. I put more weight on the etymology
than you do, but like you, I maintain that
context trumps etymology. In the example
above, $LX is a clue, but not a
predeterminate.

In the above example, knowing that at that
time there were different types of projectiles
used, it appears to refer to the general term
“projectile” than to a specific type. Arrows,
javelins, stones and even forgotten ones were
used at that time, and the listed ones are
named in Tanakh, so the generalized term looks
like the correct definition. In this example,
the etymology is a strong clue. But not in
every case.
>
>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
>
Karl W. Randolph.
--
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