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  • From: "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>
  • To: "fred burlingame" <tensorpath AT gmail.com>, "fred putnam" <fred.putnam AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] cognate alphabet
  • Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2010 11:53:30 -0800

Dear Fred B.,

One has to distinguish from Hebrew Tanakh and Greek LXX. The Tanakh was
written
primarily in Hebrew with portions of Daniel, Ezra and a verse in Jeremiah in
Aramaic of the 6th - 5th Centuries BC. The LXX is Greek from the 3rd Century
(ca. 250) - 1st Century BC. There are some later editors, e.g. Theodotion,
etc.,
from about the 1st - 3rd Century AD. Of course, the Great Codices,
Alexandrinus,
Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, are from the 4th Century AD (ca. 320) have the LXX
and
the NT.

Now that the DSS Biblical MSS have been open to all scholars they will now be
included in any text-critical problems in translating the Tanakh into English.
TNIV or NIV 2011, and possibly others, was supposed to use the DSS for this
purpose (?).

The use of the LXX can possibly help in some of the hapax legomena, but not
always. The Pentateuch, or Law of Moses, is fairly consistent in its
translation
method, but the rest of the Tanakh is not so consistent. See the NETS
translation of the LXX for further information
(1) The print version is available: Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G.
Wright
are the editors and the publisher is Oxford University Press (Oxford)
www.oup.com/us ISBN (9780195289756);

(2) An electronic version (PDFs viewable online or downloadable) is
accessible
online at: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/.

I am giving a general overview of the situation, but not too general.

BTW, Happy Thanksgiving to all

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III

----- Original Message -----
From: "fred burlingame" <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
To: "fred putnam" <fred.putnam AT gmail.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2010 10:00 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] cognate alphabet


> Hello Fred:
>
> I am not sure of the boundaries of these two professions: textual criticism;
> and comparative linguistics.
>
> You may well be correct that my original post in this thread addresses
> matters more within the former versus the latter profession. After all has
> been said in this thread to date however, I am not entirely convinced of the
> wholly alien nature of ancient greek to masoretic text ("MT") hebrew. If
> cuneiform can inform MT, why not septuagint greek, from a comparative
> linguistic standpoint?
>
> Be that as it may, my un-scientific experience with modern english bible
> publishers, unanimously accepting the MT rendering and correspondingly
> rejecting a competing and differing septuagint greek rendering ... discloses
> to me that this phenomenon occurs frequently and not "in a relatively few"
> occasions. Such circumstance implies to me one of two conclusions:
>
> a. the failure of one language to achieve translation of the other; or
>
> b. the two languages addressed two different subjects and stories.
>
> Either way, the situation becomes remarkable .... in my humble opinion.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 10:36 PM, fred putnam <fred.putnam AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Fred,
> >
> > It seems that your question has more to do with textual criticism--why
> > relatively few LXX/MT differences are decided "in favour of" LXX. Is this
> > right?
> >
> > You might find Emanuel Tov, *Textual Criticism*, helpful, or his earlier
> > work on the Septuagint (1980?). Sorry, I'm doing this from home, and most
> > of
> > my books are at school.
> >
> > Also, no English version that I know footnotes every time the translators
> > or editors decide to accept a particular reading of LXX. This is, again, a
> > matter of textual criticism (above).
> >
> > Fred Putnam
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 6:54 PM, fred burlingame
<tensorpath AT gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> >> Hello Kevin:
> >>
> >> Thanks for your comments.
> >>
> >> I can appreciate your distinction between alphabet and language.
> >>
> >> The tie that binds greek and hebrew, phoenician alphabet, appears to me,
> >> however, more than a matter of form.
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Greek_alphabet
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hebrew_alphabet
> >>
> >> I just don't see why (cognate to hebrew) ugarit language (for example,
> >> but
> >> without limitation) instructs the understanding of biblical hebrew;
> >> whereas
> >> ancient greek does not do so.
> >>
> >> regards,
> >>
> >> fred burlingame
> >>
> >> On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 5:34 PM, Kevin Riley <klriley AT alphalink.com.au
> >> >wrote:
> >>
> >> > Yes - the sequences are similar because the sequence was borrowed with
> >> the
> >> > alphabet. No one is questioning the borrowing of the alphabet. But
> >> sharing
> >> > an alphabet does not make two languages 'cognate' - at least, not as
> >> that
> >> > term is usually used.
> >> >
> >> > Kevi Riley
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On 25/11/2010 9:45 AM, Hedrick Gary wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Not to add fuel to the fire here, but one cannot help being struck by
> >> some
> >> >> of the similarities in sequences, even between Hebrew, English, and
> >> Greek.
> >> >>
> >> >> qof, resh, shin, tav
> >> >> p, q, r, s, t
> >> >> pi, rho, sigma, tau
> >> >>
> >> >> Gary Hedrick
> >> >> San Antonio, Texas USA
> >> >>
> >> >> On Nov 24, 2010, at 4:31 PM, Kevin Riley wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> The *alphabets* have a common ancestor. That is not the same as the
> >> >>> *languages* being cognate. As far back as there is reliable
> >> >>> evidence,
> >> Greek
> >> >>> and Hebrew are not cognate languages. In terms of language, if there
> >> was a
> >> >>> 'proto-Canaanite', then it is the mother of Hebrew, Phoenician,
> >> Moabite,
> >> >>> Ammonite, etc, but not of Greek.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Kevin Riley
> >> >>>
> >> >>> On 25/11/2010 4:41 AM, fred burlingame wrote:
> >> >>>
> >> >>>> affirmative; the common parent = proto-canaanite.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_alphabet
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> regards,
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> fred burlingame
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 11:11 AM, Christopher Kimball<
> >> >>>> transcriber AT tanach.us
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>> wrote:
> >> >>>>> Is Greek usually considered a cognate language of Hebrew?
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> Chris Kimball
> >> >>>>> West Redding, CT
> >> >>>>> USA
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> >> >>> b-hebrew mailing list
> >> >>> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> >> >>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> >> >>>
> >> >>> _______________________________________________
> >> >> b-hebrew mailing list
> >> >> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> >> >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> > b-hebrew mailing list
> >> > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> >> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> >> >
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> b-hebrew mailing list
> >> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > --)---------------
> > "We are not yet what we already are" (J. Pieper).
> >
> > Frederic Clarke Putnam, Ph.D. | Professor of Biblical Studies
> > Philadelphia Biblical University | 200 Manor Avenue | Langhorne, PA
> > 19047-2990
> > http://pbu.edu | 1215-702-4502 | Fax: 1-215-702-4533 | www.fredputnam.org
> >
> >  Before printing this email, think green!
> >
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>


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