Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Randall:

The original link got me to the same place. I was away from the computer for
a few days, so didn’t comment earlier.

I watched the video linked to by the instructor, and all I heard was what I
understand as modern Hebrew. One of the comments about it, “Biblical Hebrew
is Hebrew”. which is true, but then so is Chaucerian English English, so a
native speaker of modern English should have no problem reading Chaucer? Or
how about a native speaker of modern English reading Beowulf? Or for me, the
reason I got into Hebrew on a daily basis was because I had trouble
understanding Elizabethan English as used in the KJV. Similarly, a native
speaker of modern Israeli Hebrew will think he understands Biblical Hebrew,
but because of the changes in vocabulary meanings and grammatical structure,
how often will he misunderstand the text?

When we don’t even know how Biblical Hebrew was pronounced, other than that
the Masoretic points coded for Tiberian Hebrew which was different from
Biblical Hebrew, how can it credibly be claimed that by using modern
pronunciation of Tiberian points we are thereby teaching Biblical Hebrew?
He’s whistling Dixie.

Karl W. Randolph.

BTW Re: your question, “As an example, if a student asked permission from a
teacher to leave a class, would they [sic] use אצאה/אעזבה נא, or הבה לי
לעזוב/לצאת, or תן לי לעזוב/לצאת, or הניחה לי לעזוב/צאת, or הרשני לצאת, or
what?” can you give any Biblical examples of any of those? The closest I can
think of would be “May I go out?” אצא נא החוצה similar to יצא־נא אבי ואמי
אתכם in 1 Samuel 22:3 or צא־נא לקראת אחז in Isaiah 7:3.

On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 1:51 AM, Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Here is a correction to the link that was posted in the earlier email:
> http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/quiz-biblical-modern-hebrew/
>
> >There is a blog that may be of interest to those on the list.
> Brian Schultz is teaching BH at Fresno Pacific in California using
> biblical Hebrew in the classroom. He raises the question about
> comparisons and use of only biblical in class.
> [incorrect link deleted--correct link above--RB]
> Naturally, he has chosen to use the masoretic dialectical shape of the
> words as opposed to a theoretical reconstruction of BH word shapes.
> >
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life