Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Paul Zellmer" <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com>]

As one who has had the privilege of participating in taking the Hebrew Bible 
and translating it into a non-indo-European language, I cannot disagree more 
strongly.  The required word studies have resulted in both basic meaning and 
extended meanings of every word that I have encountered, and these have been 
bounced off of and checked by the scholarship.  Even this list helped with 
some of those studies and checks.

This is why I enjoy being a part of this group.  If I were of the opinion 
expressed in this posting, I would throw up my hands and move on to more 
profitable things.  If BH study has no firm results, why bother?  But it does 
have firm results, so I continue to try to learn.

Paul Zellmer

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org 
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of fred burlingame
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 10:20 AM
To: K Randolph
Cc: B-Hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] art vs. science


BH currently suffers from a lack of such structured examination. No default
position exists. No general agreement prevails on the meaning of each word
in the masoretic text ("MT"), and as each word appears in the text.

Hence, no organized and ongoing inquiry into the language itself can
proceed. The investigators, the scholars if you will, have no standard
against which to propose (& measure) alternate hypotheses as to the meaning
of each word in the MT, and as it appears in such text.

ישראל נוע for 40 years in the desert (according to the story).  BH study
seems to so meander today, in the absence of an organized method of inquiry
into the meaning of the language.