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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] XSD
  • Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 16:20:30 -0500

Dear Karl,

you read the file Bill referred to,
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i21/21b02001.htm in
particular looking at reason "5. The discoverer says a
belief is credible because it has endured for centuries."
It looks as if you practice this fallacy.

HH: Here is the idea you're referring to:

. The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries. There is a persistent myth that hundreds or even thousands of years ago, long before anyone knew that blood circulates throughout the body, or that germs cause disease, our ancestors possessed miraculous remedies that modern science cannot understand. Much of what is termed "alternative medicine" is part of that myth.

HH: But a persistent myth is different than the credible knowledge of the scholarly community. There is etymological data from other Semitic languages, and signs of the same root being used the same way in Hebrew. That is not a myth. Nor have you refuted the existing belief.

Not taking roots into consideration is also a fallacy.

HH: I did not see you shouldn't take it into consideration, but you are assuming that a noun means something based on a root idea of the associated verb. Do we have any instance besides this one where the noun does have this meaning? Don't you understood how unsupported your theory is? You are claiming that XSD does not have the meaning here that everyone says it has based on a noun having a meaning that nobody else seems to think it has.

> HH: You have not demonstrated that X+)T ever means "error" anywhere
else. It may never have had that meaning in ancient Hebrew. One
lexicon lists five nouns related to the verb X+). They may have
> differed from one another in meaning.

Judges 20:16 shows the root meaning of to err: don't tell
me that those slingers were morally not sinning.

HH: That's the verb. I asked about the noun. That was my point. One meaning of the verb is not necessarily transferable to this noun. Does the noun show this meaning elsewhere. The lexicons do not give "error" as a meaning of the noun X+)T. The word occurs 298 times, and the lexicons never give "error" as its meaning.

> > > > "Justice exults a nation,
> >> but undeserved good favor of peoples errs."

> HH: Even the general use makes no sense. Kindness is a good thing to
show people.

Not in the context, where kindness is done at the expense
of justice. If a murderer is set free instead of executed,
that is undeserved kindness that is injust. Genesis 9:6.

HH: But the word means kindness, goodness. You can't insert the idea "undeserved" and then claim that that is a main idea in this verse.

> HH: You don't seem to realize that if you come up with an
interpretation of Scripture that no one has had in two thousand or
more years of study on the topic, it is probably incorrect.

Just because it is old, that doesn't make it correct. Just
because it is new, does not make it better. Each has to
stand on its own two feet.

HH: You have neither refuted the old or proved the new.

> HH: I don't see that you have tried to prove this assertion anywhere.
I don't see how it would work in Prov. 25:10.

To put that verse into modern English, if you have an
argument with someone else, argue with him, and don't
reveal other consultations, lest the one who hears it
treats you well undeservably and your evil report will
not return. As I understand these verses, if one gets
people to treat him well based on falsehood (more likely,
one sided portrayal), when they find out that they have
been snookered into supporting him (taking sides in his
argument), they will make sure that he has a bad
reputation at least in their own hearts. Like all
proverbs, I am reading between the lines, looking at
the actions, to try to make sense of what is said.

This is the same sort of reading between the lines to
make sense of "a stitch in time saves nine" or "pretty
is as pretty does".

HH: The proverb does not say what you're claiming it does. It would need more words to say all that. As it stands, it can't say that:

HCSB Prov 25:9-10: make your case with your opponent without revealing another's secret; otherwise the one who hears will disgrace you, and you'll never live it down.

HH: You want for verse 10: "otherwise the one who hears will treat you well undeservedly, and you will never live it down.

HH: That makes no sense. You would need more explanatory words to get your idea. It is important to know that the verb XSD means to be kind, as many lexicons and many scholars have established. The noun is similar. The idea that the word XSD explicitly includes the idea "undeserved" or "undeservedly" is incorrect. Look at this verse for example:

Gen. 40:14 But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.

HH: Joseph is asking for kindness specifically because the man owes it to him, not because it is undeserved.

HH: And you never dealt with one main objection I had to your handling of Lev 20:17. Since you did not like the NIV translation, I will use the HCSB:

HCSB LEV 20:17 If a man marries his sister, whether his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be publicly cut off from their people. He has had sexual intercourse with his sister; he will bear his punishment

HH: The punishment is not the XSD here. It is the sexual relations that are the XSD, and they are not "undeserved good favor."

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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