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  • From: "A. Philip Brown II" <APBROWN2 AT prodigy.net>
  • To: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] A Reader's Hebrew Old Testament, pre-Masorete?
  • Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 13:22:43 -0500

Hi, Karl,

The glosses I will list will be (1) KB, (2) BDB where
different from KB, and (3) our (I & my co-author) own
personal offerings where we disagree with both.

Where KB & BDB are uncertain of a meaning, I think it
would be appropriate to note that with some kind of
sigla. I haven't decided exactly how that will be
handled.

You are free to disagree with Gesenius and BDB, but
your disagreement with them does not constitute a
scholarly refutation of the senses they offer. Have
you written such refutations? If so, I'd be happy to
consider them.

You seem to forget, no offense intended, from whence
you came in your Hebrew studies. The very fact that
you started with Gesenius and BDB means you were
initially dependent upon them for direction. After you
read enough to form your own opinion, you were freed
from relying upon them. Great! I applaud your
diligence. The volume I am proposing, however, would
have saved you much page-turning time,and would be no
more likely to enslave you to its glosses than your
use of Gesenius and BDB was.

I'm glad we share a desire to see the reading of the
Hebrew Scriptures increase and spread. I am not
offering this as "the best way" to accomplish this. I
am offering as "a way" and, IMO, a good way to do it.
This volume will naturally not take the place of
electronic tools, or BHS4, since it will have no
apparatus. I hope to add a plank to the bridge that
brings students across the chasm between English and
Hebrew.

Shalom uvrecha,

Philip Brown
--- Original Message ---
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: "A. Philip Brown II" <apbrown2 AT prodigy.net>
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] A Reader's Hebrew Old
Testament, pre-Masorete?

>Philip:
>
>You want your students to read the text devotionally?
That's precisely why =
>I read Tanakh over and over again. In Hebrew. It was
after a few times thro=
>ugh that I realized that Gesenius and BDB were often
wrong. The last paper =
>dictionary I used was Lisowski's concordance, and I
often disagreed with hi=
>s glosses, after looking at all the occurances of a
lexeme in the text and =
>comparing them with synonyms. And how many of the
Ketib vs. Qere readings a=
>re the result of incorrect pointing? How many to
sloppy lexecography? What =
>I notice is that 90+% of the time I prefer Ketib as
giving a better reading=
> with the unpointed
text.=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
>=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
>=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20
>
>Another question: how closely will you follow the
glosses given in BDB, KB =
>or other dictionaries? For example, one of my first
postings on this list w=
>as a question concerning THW WBHW (Gen. 1:2) which I
came to understand as =
>"uninhabited (lifeless) and still", but I found on
this list that there is =
>a lively difference in opinion based on theological
leanings, some of whom =
>agree with me, others with BDB. Which meaning will
you give? Or how about R=
>XP in the same verse? From its other two uses in
Deut. 32:11 and Jer. 23:9,=
> it cannot mean "to hover or flutter", but all three
uses reflect a coming =
>to rest, as an eagle upon its chicks in a nourishing
manner, as bones of a =
>dejected person who finds it hard to get up the
energy to move, and as the =
>Spirit of God coming to rest upon the face of the
waters. There are many ot=
>her similar questions, most often occuring with
lexemes that are found 10 o=
>r fewer times in Tanakh. How will you deal with these
and similar questions=
>? Will you indicate where scholars are uncertain as
to the definition of le=
>xemes?
>
>You mentioned that students are ignorant of Hebrew
grammar. Or is it that t=
>hey are ignorant of grammar? That they don=92t
recognize how to look for a =
>subject, verb and object, and what are adjectives and
adverbs? And it doesn=
>'t matter which language? (To give an example, one of
my sons studied Japan=
>ese in high school for three years, and I was
surprised that in a few hours=
> reading a Japanese grammar which I picked up in a
Japanese bookstore in to=
>wn that I knew more Japanese grammar and syntax than
he. What did they teac=
>h in his class?) Can your students diagram an English
sentence?
>
>I share your desire that those who believe Tanakh
actually read it in Hebre=
>w, I just wonder which is the best way to go about it.
>
>In closing, years ago an older and wiser friend
counselled me not to go int=
>o Hebrew studies as there were 10 PhD candidates for
every opening for teac=
>hing. Following his advice, I failed at every other
thing that I attempted.=
> But I figured two semesters of Hebrew classes were
enough to allow me to r=
>ead Tanakh devotionally, which I did. Yes, I leafed
through dictionaries ti=
>me and time again. I did it so often that I added
marks on page edges to sp=
>eed things up. I seriously wonder if I would have
learned as much had I had=
> the tool you are proposing?
>
>Yours, Karl W. Randolph.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "A. Philip Brown II" <apbrown2 AT prodigy.net>
>
>>=20
>> Hi, Karl,
>>=20
>> Syntagmatic relationships is just the linguistic
term for context,
>> specifically lexical-syntactical context. Knowing
the possible roots could
>> be called the paradigmatic relationship that the
root shares with other
>> potential roots.
>>=20
>> You say, "expected is that a student will know his
Hebrew grammar." (1)
>> Most don't. (2) The way grammars were written was
by reading until patter=
>ns
>> were identified. (3) I think learning grammar apart
from reading/seeing it
>> in context is not optimal.
>>=20
>> As I Hebrew instructor I am constantly trying to
mix the deductive and
>> inductive approaches. The book I am proposing is
nothing more than a
>> contextually-nuanced, concise lexicon and the
Hebrew text wedded in one
>> volume. It will facilitate precisely what students
need to do most: read =
>the
>> text.
>>=20
>> Thanks for your comments.
>>=20
>> Philip
>--=20
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