Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Tuesday 01 November 2005 12:45, Karl Randolph wrote:
> Yitzhak:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
>
> > On 10/28/05, Karl Randolph wrote:
> > > First, you are the only person I have interacted with who
> > > makes the claim that "Biblical" Hebrew includes the
> > > Masoretic points.
> >
> > You have a Biblical Hebrew grammar book without
> > Massoretic vocalization?
>
> That is irrelevant. All the grammars I have seen are for
> beginning students with the expectation that they will
> never graduate to reading Hebrew without points. None
> that I have seen will prepare a student for the variations
> in the consonantal text found in Tanakh. None prepares
> for the fact that the points are demonstrably wrong on
> occasion. In short, the grammars teach towards an ideal
> that is not always found in fact.
[snip]

You haven't looked at very many, then.  All the ones I have seen, including 
the ones I base my teaching on, explain what the points are and how to use 
them cautiously, but they also explain something that you don't seem to 
grasp: as far as we can tell, the pronunciation tradition that the points 
preserve goes back MUCH further than the Masoretes themselves, and can tell 
us much about how the generations going back to who knows when pronounced the 
text.  And there are plenty of us who don't see reading without points as a 
"graduation."  You assume this is a better way because it's the way you 
chose, but I have yet to see an adequate justification for it.  From what I 
have seen over the past several months or so, your "graduation" has brought 
you to absurd readings, unlikely definitions, and thorough befuddlement.  
I'll pass, thank you.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Maybe I'll trade it for a new hat."