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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] no to aspect?

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: "Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] no to aspect?
  • Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 22:16:20 -0500

You are right, but I hope you fully appreciate the delicacy of the background issue. For many people it is theologically imperative to understand what the Hebrew bible is saying. But the fact that the language of the bible is often non grammatical gets in the way. Are certain sayings of the prophets about the past, the present, the immediate future, or the distant future? Context, which is often too meagre, and a factual background, which is often uncertain, may not be helpful. No end theological controversies arise from these, often nebulous, textual passages, and their variously possible understandings. Recall the well known example of Exodus 35:3, the crucial edict: LO T-BAAR-U E$ B-KOL MO-$B-OT-EY-KEM B-YOM HA-$ABAT. Does T-BAAR-U mean start a fire, as is the rabbinical understanding, or does it mean leave a fire burning, as is the karaite הקראים understanding (I think they don't consider fluorescent light as "fire")?

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Feb 7, 2011, at 4:58 PM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. wrote:

[in particular, grammar cannot attribute any fixed, absolute, immutable,
context-free dynamical value to a single word, the way you do.]





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