Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Isaac:

I am merely a lexicographer, not a philosopher nor theologian,
therefore I will not enter into a philosophic argument whether or not
"...and there can not be, a Hebrew root of the meaning "to be
unknown"". Rather, in using a concordance to examine its uses in
Tanakh, and comparing it to synonyms and contrasting to antonyms, as
well as analyzing noun and other derivatives from the same root, "to
be(come) unknown" is the closest equivalence in modern English.

Secondly, in analyzing Biblical Hebrew usages, your claim "The hebrew
root indicates a material state." cannot be maintained; even most
nouns refer to actors, not static objects.

Your objections appear to be philosophic, not linguistic, and as such,
I consider this discussion closed.

Karl W. Randolph.

On 6/19/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> Karl,
>
>
> I can just repeat what I said before: There is no, and there can not be, a Hebrew root 
> of the meaning "to be unknown". The hebrew root indicates a material state. 
> The root (LM, as well, as its twin )LM, consist in my opinion of the single-consonat 
> roots [substantives] AL-AM, 'tall-massive'. Thus both (LM and )LM essentially mean 
> 'grow high, pile over'. The borrowed sense of (LM as 'hide, conceal' comes from the 
> idea of 'go under cover' or 'burrow' done with the intent of vanishing from sight, as 
> an animal would do covering itself with sand.
> The price you pay for substituting the metaphorical value 'unknown' of (LM for its 
> basic value 'grow up, pile over' is your interpretation of ALUMIM, 'youth', as 
> "the period when girls are still sexually unknown to boys, and boys are still 
> sexually unknown to girls", which I would not even remotely concede.
> I am also in grave doubt on the translation of HA-QODRIYM MINI QARAX as "blackish 
> by reason of the ice". Job 6:16-18 describes in my opinion the snow capped 
> mountains of East Africa.
>
>
>  Isaac Fried, Boston University