Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

On 12/20/04 10:17 AM, "Darrell Smith" <Darrell.H.Smith AT sceptreofjudah.org>
wrote:
> 1) The structure of Hebrew suggests that at its earliest form it was a
> designed language, which proposes that it was given to Adam by Yhwh.
> 
> 4) I would make the supposition that Yhwh would use formal, ancient meanings
> of words to point out hidden spiritual truths and allusions. These meanings
> are from the etymology.

Pardon me for being blunt, but metaphysical suppositions are a poor basis
for reliable semantic investigations. One must work from the actual
linguistic data when trying to establish the semantic range of a particular
word, term, or phrase--at least if one wishes his or her argument to be
persuasive to those not already convinced.

Chris

-- 
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Armstrong Fellow in Religion
Pepperdine University
http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
http://www.iTanakh.org
http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info