Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Harold:

We don't know when the Damascus Document was authored, but from the sounds of 
it, it was centuries after the last of the Hebrew canon. In other words, at a 
time when the people on the street spoke Aramaic and only the scholars spoke 
Hebrew more or less fluently (much like the medieval monks spoke Latin). Thus 
it is very likely that GDD in the Damascus Document is either an Aramaic loan 
word or a late development of GDWD into a verb.

As for the "up-to-date lexicon", have you not noticed my discussions 
concerning BDB? All of those that I know of since Gesenius have been written 
with presuppositions that I reject: presuppositions such as evolution, the 
late development of the Hebrew canon, the backwardness of the ancient Hebrew 
people, and that word usages in cognate languages and in post Biblical Hebrew 
accurately reflects Biblical Hebrew use. (The last point can often give us 
clues to rarely used Biblical Hebrew terms, if used with caution.) I find 
that comparing lexemes with their roots and synonyms within Tanakh more 
useful for finding accurate definitions than looking at cognate languages.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>

> Dear Karl,
> 
> Thanks, I see your interpretation better now, but I gave you good 
> information from an up-to-date lexicon. Apparently the word GDD with 
> the meaning "band together" also occurs in the Damascus Document (CD 
> 1:20). I have a translation of the verse that reads: "They 
> overstepped covenant, violated law; and they conspired together to 
> kill the innocent, for all those who lived . . . ." Evidently the 
> words representing the GDD verb are "they conspired together," or 
> "they banded together."
> 
>                               Yours,
>                               Harold Holmyard
> 
> >Maybe I was not a clear as I should have been.
> >
> >Here in Jeremiah 5:7 I understand BYT ZWNH as a metaphore for 
> >apostate Judah, not as a statement concerning visiting a common 
> >prostitute. This use is consistant with the appellation of apostate 
> >Israel and Judah as committing (spiritual) adultary and prostitution 
> >when they serve other gods (possibly physical as well if the worship 
> >includes ritual coitus), and consistant with the context leading up 
> >to this statement.
> >
> >As for the use of GDD as a verb, it is used only seven times. Psalm 
> >94:21 and the varient in Psalm 59:4 are from the root GWD, in 
> >Jeremiah 30:23 the verb is a hitpolel of GWR.
> >
> >As for GDWD, it was not the main army (which often called for 
> >mustering out every able bodied man of the nation), rather a squad, 
> >often no more than a raiding party. It is a troop "cut out" or split 
> >off from the main army.
-- 
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