Biblical Hebrew Forum

[gfsomsel AT juno.com]

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:49:18 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
writes:
> Ken:
> 
> As for evidence of pronunciation shift, I noticed that the Byzantine 
> tradition of texts of the New Testament preserved some indications 
> in the transliterations of names that a shift in pronunciation had 
> occured and come almost to completion. By the time of the texts that 
> Nestlé is based on, that pronunciation shift was finished and those 
> NT texts were cleaned up to reflect that.
> 
> The indications that I have seen point to the pronunciation shift 
> starting possibly as early as the fourth century BCE, if not during 
> the Babylonian exile itself. The Jews went into exile from a 
> linguistically isolated community speaking only Hebrew, and came 
> back speaking Aramaic as well as if not better than Hebrew. That 
> can't help but have an effect, even on pronunciation.
> 
> Karl W. Randolph.
> 
___________

Karl,

As with your position on the relationship of Phoenician to Hebrew, you
have reversed the order of the Byzantine texts and the texts on which the
critical text of the NT is based.  The Byzantine texts are later than B,
Aleph, A, etc. which are the basis for the N-A text.  It therefore is
incorrect to say that 

"the Byzantine tradition of texts of the New Testament preserved some
indications in the transliterations of names that a shift in
pronunciation had occured and come almost to completion. By the time of
the texts that Nestlé is based on, that pronunciation shift was finished
and those NT texts were cleaned up to reflect that."

You seem to believe very firmly that "the first shall be last and the
last shall be first."

george
gfsomsel