Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

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.]