Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Ari:

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 9:07 AM, AMK Judaica <amkjudaica AT hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> Incidentally, for the semiticists/linhuists out there, I'm curious whether
> you think it is or easier (or fraught with greater pitfalls) to reconstruct
> an ancient language that still has a living tradition or one that is
> complete dead.
>
>
>
> -Ari Kinsberg
>
> Brooklyn, NY
>

I’m inclined to say the former has greater pitfalls, for when one knows the
later tradition, he then tends to try to fit the earlier into the same
pattern even when it doesn’t fit. Psychology.

That’s where a lot of my disagreements with many mainstream
translations/understandings comes from—the only Hebrew I know is Biblical
Hebrew, and so I tend to read many verses slightly differently than
traditional renditions.

Karl W. Randolph.