Biblical Hebrew Forum

["John W. Leys" <eliyahu5733 AT jerusalem.zzn.com>]

Deborah Millier wrote:

> Ben Crick wrote:
>
> > was trying to leave aside the NT 
> > interpretation, and stay with Psalm 
> > 8:5 "as is".
> >    
>
> Oh come now Revd Crick, is it possible to leave MT Psa
> 8:5 �as is�? Or even desirable? Then what have you
> got?
>  
Then you have the plain literal meaning of the text. And yes, it is both 
possible and desirable.

> To arrive at *meaning* for a biblical text,
> interpretation must be employed, right? 
All depends on what sort of "meaning" you are trying to find. Do you 
want to know what the text actually says, or do you wish to know what 
others interpreted it to say years afterwards?

> And a Jew might draw from usage, quotes, and/or
> allusions to said passage in the Mishnah, Midrashim,
> Targumim, Rashi, etc. Correct? He/she might even dip
> into the NT along the way for its say on a text�s
> history of interpretation.
>  
And much of what they would find in Rabbinic would be counter productive 
if one is trying to find the plain meaning of the text, as the Rabbis 
often chose drash over pshat.

> But where the
> NT touches on a topic germane to Hebrew, why take the
> long way around? NT evidence is at least that:
> evidence.
But evidence of what? The NT bears very little on what the Psalter wrote 
several hundred years earlier. The NT can tell you what some first 
century Jews felt these texts mean, but it will be of little use in 
ascertaining what the plain meaning of the psalm is.

--
Shalom
John W. Leys
Graduate School, Jewish Theological Seminary (Student)

http://eliyahu5733.blogspot.com/

"Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge"
		- Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel