Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.anglia.ac.uk>]

YS: But see, the argument here is to read the text without
the guidance of tradition (Massora).

JCR: I don't recall anyone ever saying we should abandon 
the data we can retrieve for the massoretic text. This 
text gives us a wealth of information about what were 
considered to be variant pronunciations of the same 
consonantal sequences.

The only claim I recall being made is that the habit of 
reading unpointed text gives a reader a better 
preparation for spotting and being able to resolve 
potential ambiguities to a closer level of ease of that 
of a native hebrew reader and therefore be better 
prepared for reading rich archeological finds like the 
DSS. Is there any reason you have for disagreeing with 
such a claim? Or would you rather persist in debating a 
straw man argument with yourself?

James Christian Read - BSc Computer Science 
http://www.lamie.org/hebrew       -  thesis1: concept driven machine 
translation using the Aleppo codex 
http://www.lamie.org/lad-sim.doc  -  thesis2: language acquisition simulation
http://www.lamie.org/ngelta