Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Peter:

I know people disagree with my conclusions, but these are the conclusions 
that I have arrived at after looking at the evidence. It doesn't bother me 
that people disagree with me, after all, that leads to discussion that can 
improve us all. And a certain amount of the disagreement is theologically 
based, where we need to understand where the other is coming from and allow 
the disagreement to stand. Further, one's theological position will often 
predispose him to notice things that others of other theologies will miss or 
discount.

Having dealt extensively with immigrants, I now suspect that the returnees 
from the Babylonian Captivity as a group probably spoke Aramaic better than 
Hebrew, and probably spoke it on the street and in the home while Hebrew 
continued to be the language of learning, high literature, religion and 
official records. After all, it was after at least two generations of daily 
contact with Aramaic for most Jews. Even though Ezra made an effort to make 
Hebrew the daily language, even he wrote half his book in Aramaic fully 
expecting his readers to understand it.

Further, I can see a clear stylistic distinction between the pre-exile and 
post-exile writing, but that's assuming the traditional dates for the 
authorship of the books, e.g. there was only one Isaiah, and he wrote well 
before the exile, that Daniel was totally written by the court official 
brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, etc. I recognize that that's a 
theological position that others on this list don't share: that's OK, I don't 
insist that others abandon their theological positions to adopt mine, but we 
should all be allowed to mention how our theological positions affect our 
interpretation of Biblical Hebrew language and literary styles.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>

> 
> On 11/02/2005 18:35, Karl Randolph wrote:
> 
> > ...
> >
> >> From what I have seen of the language, I have come to the 
> >> following conclusions:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > Finally, this mail list is dedicated to the study of Biblical 
> > Hebrew. In view of the above, arguing fine points of Masoretic 
> > pronunciations won't help much in the stated goal. Let Peter have 
> > the last word.
> >
> >
> >
> Karl, in view of your kind invitation, I shall simply say that it 
> is a great improvement that your set of unproven speculations is  
> at least preceded by some kind of disclaimer. I do agree with your 
> point 1, and perhaps 4, but 2 is exaggerated in time scale and 3 is 
> simply confused.
> 
> -- Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
-- 
___________________________________________________________
Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com
http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm