Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Barry" <nebarry AT verizon.net>]

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From: "Randall Buth" <randallbuth AT gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 2:26 AM
To: "James Christian" <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>
Cc: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Reflection on Randall's Statement

> Well, that means that we who recognize three Akkadian vowels I, A, U (and
> E +/O)
> are sitting with the whole field of Semitic studies and 150 years of
> phonological
> work. And we/they have recognized that the evidence is compelling.
> And you are sitting alone trying to believe that any voice from the street
> has
> equal weight by saying "I don't/can't see evidence". It's not our
> fault or responsibility.
> As Sapir said, "It is amazing how far you'd go to simply refuse to
> even read evidence
> against your position."
> And the evidence is massive and far beyond the practical constraints
> of a public
> email list. We can summarize for someone, but that person must have a
> desire
> to learn.

This reminds me of an experience as  a college freshman, taking, of all
things, an a "history of political science" course, in which the instructor
(whom I remember as one of the the best professors I ever had outside of my
major) taught using classic texts, starting with Aristotle's Politics.
There was a group of "agenda" students in the class -- chances are if if any
one has been around a university long enough for any reason you have
encountered the like -- who absolutely insisted that we couldn't know what
Aristotle really wrote because we couldn't be sure that the knowledge of
ancient Greek had been accurately preserved.  No amount of evidence would
convince them otherwise, and they would have gone on incessantly had the
professor finally not told them (politely) to shut up and not bring up the
issue again.

That's what I think James is -- an agenda student, and he sure has been
successful in diverting lots of list energy to considering that agenda.  If
he really thinks he has something, let him interact with the range of
published literature and publish his thesis, and see how that fares.  In the
meantime, maybe the list could discuss issues related to biblical Hebrew as
a language, rather than spelling and historical linguistics?

N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...
   -- Augustine, Confessions 1:1

http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/
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