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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] "Desire of Women" in Heb. Text of Dan. 11:37

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Gary Hedrick <garyh AT cjfm.org>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew List <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] "Desire of Women" in Heb. Text of Dan. 11:37
  • Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 21:53:06 +0000

On 18/11/2006 20:56, Gary Hedrick wrote:

Peter, is it your contention that there are no legitimate
differences between the ways Hebrew and Greek writers (and thinkers) in
biblical times would have expressed themselves? ...

Well, first, by "Hebrew" and "Greek", are we talking about language, ethnicity, culture, religion, or what? I accept that the languages were different, of course, but people with the same cultural etc background could and did say the same things in different forms in different languages. Of course people with different cultures and religions said different things because they had different world views. But this difference is distinct from language. Consider the discussion we are having about the book of Sirach. It is not possible to tell from the general content whether particular passages were written in Greek, or in Hebrew and later translated into Greek - although it may be possible to tell from detailed examination of the grammar. Language simply does not determine general thought patterns. This has been amply proved by scholarly studies, which have thoroughly discredited the strong form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Note the following from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis:
The opposing idea — that language has /absolutely no/ influence on thought at all — is widely considered to be false (Gumperz: introduction to Gumperz 1996). But the strong version of the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis, that language determines thought, is also thought to be incorrect. The most common view is that the truth lies somewhere in between the two and currently linguists rather than studying whether language affects thought, are studying /how/ it affects thought.

... I don't think anyone here
is saying we agree entirely with Borman. I was just saying that his thesis
is an interesting one and deserves thoughtful consideration.
The formation and formulation of Christian thought in the milieu of
the 1C Middle Eastern culture is a subject of vigorous and ongoing debate.
Cambridge U. Press has published an interesting compendium of essays (Early
Christian Thought in its Jewish Context) dealing with some of these issues.
Peter, the negative review you cited from Amazon.com says that
Borman took this position "to make a theological point." Is this also your
concern?
I am concerned that this is bad scholarship and also opens the door to racism.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





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