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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Ex Pu'ah

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: MarianneLuban AT aol.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ex Pu'ah
  • Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 21:50:38 +0100

On 26/08/2004 20:32, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

...


I am not tossing any missiles. I just gave views. The Bible dictionary in which I looked up "Pu'ah" was compiled by James P. Boyd, hopefully an expert. He treats the Pu'ah of Exodus and the Puah of Judges as the same name. ...


This is sufficient to prove that he is not an expert, indeed that he hasn't even looked at the Hebrew text. You don't get scholarship for $3.99 (which I found it offered for); that's the price of a reprint of a second rate 19th century work (although I wasn't actually able to confirm that this is the original date of this work).

... What his rationale for this is and why he gives the meaning as "mouth", he does not say. I am as puzzled at this as anyone. But I can read Hebrew quite well and can contribute. Ask "Noam". About a month ago he posed a question on a Hebrew term and I gave him a private answer. The only reason I answered privately is because I was brand new to the list and had not yet figured out that to respond to a post, one needs to hit "reply all" instead of just "reply" as with the Yahoo groups. If "Noam" remembers, perhaps he can attest that my answer was the same as that of the majority he received onlist. I studied Hebrew before I ever cracked open an Egyptian grammar. It is not a language I am "in no position" to comment on. However, at this point my expertise in Egyptian is far greater than in Biblical Hebrew--that is true. But you don't know me well enough to be able to make any judgments on what I am fit to comment upon--or not. ...


Fair enough. I would just suggest that if you were a true Hebrew expert you would not have confused two quite different Hebrew names just because they have the same English transliteration - although we can all make mistakes of course. I will accept this as a mistake, and that your Hebrew is in fact reasonably good. And I don't claim too much of mine.

... If my sources are not good enough for you, perhaps it is you who has a source that explains the meaning of Pu'ah and gives a rationale that is unempeachable.


No, I don't. There are no unimpeachable sources for the meanings of Hebrew names as a lot must be speculative. One thing that is necessary, however, is to work from the Hebrew spelling, and not from the English as Boyd seems to.

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






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