Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Randall:

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 11:36 PM, Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>wrote:

> concerning an EXPLICIT, unambiguous example where speech content
> could not be involved but the action of the verb was moving an explicit
> something/one that was not the 'content of communication':
>

You are demanding something from me that you don’t have yourself. Looking at
all the examples of the verb in a concordance, it is not explicit that they
are all hiphils, it is not explicit that they all directly refer to
communications. There are too many ambiguitous examples for you to make
these claims.

>
> …
> Oh, and a word about honesty.
> >> It would be nice to hear the integrity of a statement like,
> >> "I admit that I do not have one explicit example to show that
> >> le-haggid can have a non-communication object. But I
> >> want to believe that it can anyway."
> >
> >No, I cannot make that statement because that would be dishonest.
>
> You may want to rethink your answer.
>

Not before you clear up all the ambiguities in Tanakh.

To give an example of ambiguity, Deuteronomy 4:13: does it say, “And he
presented his treaty to you…” which would be consistent with a piel use of
the verb in that context and a meaning hinted at by its etymology, where
“communication” is not the main force of the verb rather the means, an
assumed secondary thought, by which the presentation was made; or does it
say “And he communicated his treaty to you…” calling the verb a hiphil in
spite of the fact that it does not follow the spelling rules for a hiphil
and with no good reason restricting the understanding of the verb to
communication?

I am willing to live with ambiguity and admit to ambiguities. We don’t know
everything about Biblical Hebrew. In fact, it is that ignorance that drives
much of our discussions on this list.

Therefore, I cannot say what you want me to say, namely, “But I want to
believe that it can anyway.” where I think the evidence points to more than
a mere wishing, wanting to believe, in other words, beyond what you want me
to say.


>
>
> הגד לך
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicalulpan.org
> randallbuth AT gmail.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
>

Karl W. Randolph.