Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dave:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
> 
...> 
> You haven't looked at very many, then.

You're right, I haven't seen very many. Those that I have 
seen tend to teach towards and ideal, which is often 
transgressed in practice.

>    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,

I keep saying that the Masoretic points represent a 
snapshot on a tradition going back a thousand years 
earlier. How much longer do you want?

However, they are a snapshot on an evolving tradition, 
where some now question if we correctly understand 
and pronounce those points.

>   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."

You attribute to my not reading with points conclusions 
that I have come to when I was still reading the text with 
points. I have explicitly stated those conclusions apart 
from any mention of points. That you confuse those issues 
sounds like an example of ... well, I won't go there.

Karl W. Randolph.

-- 
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