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  • From: fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
  • To: George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] lock without a key
  • Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 09:00:51 -0500

Hello George:

Thanks for your comments.

I sense most here agree with little of what I say. ... :)

Perhaps however, I can clarify my earlier conclusion about the locked nature
of biblical hebrew language ("BHL").

I believe an approximate translation from BHL to another language can
happen. We witness such imprecise translations in the Septuagint and the
popular english language book entitled "Bible."

But to say that the old testament bible in english and the masoretic text in
hebrew achieve the same or even near level of equality as two identical
english language copies of John Grisham's latest paperback; my answer
equals: no, not close, not in substance, not in form.

Your characterization as "word play" my prior reference to the same hebrew
noun defined and applied differently in nearby verses, misses the mark.
These two different noun usages, bound by a common parent hebrew verb,
significantly enrich the meaning of all three for the hebrew reader. The
english reader however, experiences none of this substantive message the
hebrew language carries.

regards,

fred burlingame
On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 1:08 AM, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> Fred,
>
> I agree with you, not.
>
> Yes, there is always some loss when you move from one language to another.
> This is inevitable. This is not the same as saying English is locked to
> Hebrew. That analogy implies the two languages are conceptually
> impenetrable. There are times when semantics and wordplay can’t be conveyed
> easily and freely, but this doesn’t mean the languages are locked off from
> each other. That’s an overreaction. It seems you are making wordplay carry
> the entire freight of translation. This is just not right.
>
>
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
> www.moore.edu.au
>
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