Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Barry,

Because we can know very little about the issue under discussion, I 
have only made a cursory reading of the posts. Your post caught my 
attention, I therefore I commented on it. If James or anyone else has 
attacked other list-members, that should be criticized as well.

In Proverbs 30:18 (NIV) in the Bible we read: "There are three things 
that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand." The text 
refers to different phenomena in the animal world. With reference to 
the human world, I would say: "There are two things that are too 
amazing for me, yes, two things that I do not understand."

The first thing is why intelligent people so often allow themselves 
to be carried away by their emotions, when they discuss linguistic 
and other matters on a list like b-hebrew. The second thing is why 
intelligent people so often appeal to scholarly consensus and to 150 
years of research as if this was the truth and nothing but the truth.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo




> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>
> Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 9:57 AM
> To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Language modelling
>
> >  The basic reason for writing this post is Barry's personal attack on
> >  James. We should treat each other in a civil way as colleagues. We
> >  should never accuse a list-member of having a particular
> >  agenda-because we cannot know that. As a matter of fact, ancient
> >  history, chronology, and linguistics cannot be proven in the
> >  philosophical sense of the word. Claims that science has *proved*
> >  this or that regarding the past (or even often regarding the present)
> >  are hopelessly native. In relation to finds and data from the ancient
> >  past, each of us serve as a jury. Proofs are lacking, so our duty is
> >  to make a judgment regarding the circumstantial evidence that exist.
> >  If one judge this evidence differently from us, we should not doubt
> >  his or her motives.
>
> Rolf, have you been reading James's posts?  Where you when he was making
> "personal attacks?"
>
> But having expressed my personal opinion, I'll say no more.
>
> 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/
> http://my.opera.com/BarryHofstetter/blog/
>
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