Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 19/10/2005 22:34, Karl Randolph wrote:

> ...
>
> I may be wrong, but I suspect that modern Greek is far 
> closer to Byzantine pronunciation than koiné. I date many 
> of the pronunciation changes that led to modern Greek to 
> the Byzantine period, in other words after the LXX and the 
> New Testament with their transliterations were written.
>
>  
Karl, thank you for your comments. I agree that there are all kinds of 
uncertainties in the evidence which Buth and many other scholars have 
collected, and as a result of that different scholars have come to 
different conclusions. What bothers me is the approach which you and 
several other list members seem to take to such questions, as in the 
paragraph above. A healthy scepticism about the evidence and arguments 
presented by recognised scholars is good. But what is not good is an 
assumption that our own intuition, based very often on no evidence at 
all and no coherent arguments, is better than the best which scholars 
can come up with. Well, at least you say "I may be wrong". I wish that 
you and others would always say the same when presenting unorthodox 
conclusions.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/