Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>

> 
> 
> 
> Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net> wrote:
> "..... But as you may have gathered from this 
> board, the perfect/imperfect thing doesn't exactly work, either. We're 
> fairly sure that BH isn't tensed, but it doesn't really seem to be 
> aspectual, 
> either. That's why many of us are engaged in ongoing research, trying to 
> figure out exactly what it is (at the moment, we can only tell you what it 
> isn't). "
> 
> -- Now the mystery really deepens: if the above is correct, how could this 
> language have been in use for thousands of years, been  translated to 
> practically every written language; how could commentators delude 
> themselves they understaood it  -- since the the days of the Dead Sea 
> Scrolls  at least, if its very basic verbal system defies comprehension?
> 
>   Perhaps it is simply the difference  between the use of a language on the 
> one hand, and the  grammatical tools  that are employed to analyze it, 
> tools that by their nature are  constructs and abstractions?
> 
>   Uri

How much do we know about the language?

After reading through Tanakh several times in Hebrew, I have now come to the 
conclusion that we don’t know as much about Biblical Hebrew as we thought we 
did. It’s like a person who knows only modern English who then tries to read 
Shakespeare or the King James Version translation. Sure, around 95% is 
understood, and the rest can be guessed at, but there is just that amount 
that we don’t know, even though we think we do.

Because this is the book that founded Western society (though modern modern 
trends have been a return to paganism) that has led to people translating the 
book, even though some sections didn’t make sense. I have repeatedly said in 
the past that it is demonstrable that the Masoritic points are sometimes 
wrong, in fact I think wrong points is often the reason for Ketib/Qere in 
Tanakh. Because 95+% is understood correctly in every detail, a translator 
can muddle through the few sections he doesn’t understand completely to get a 
final result that accurately covers all the main points.

Karl W. Randolph.
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