Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Isaac:

Thanks for your comments.

Your analysis could be correct. The word רע could carry the meaning you
describe.

The individual human obligation to do good and shun evil appears however, to
represent the central message of the masoretic text story, be it true or
false.

Your proposed definition of "ra" would require a big change in that story.
Witness "Dvarim" 30:15, "Bereshit" 2:17.

I am not sure any students or scholars of the masoretic text willing
to travel down that road.

regards,

fred burlingame

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 10:07 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

>  It appears to me that RA, רע, essentially means 'flimsy, disconnected,
> fractured'. Hence also REA רע, 'friend', a man involved in a free
> relationship, LI-R-OT לרעות, said of sheep and cattle roaming freely and
> disconnectedly in a field, etc. This is also, methinks, the essential
> meaning of LI-R-OT לראות 'to see, to perceive, to discern, to visually
> differentiate the view'.
>
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
>
>  On Oct 26, 2010, at 9:28 PM, fred burlingame wrote:
>
>  The word רע
>
>
>