Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Sevillano Hispalis <sevillanomail AT yahoo.com>]

Shalom le colam,
reading about why "shalom aleichem" is used 

instead of "shalom alecha" I see answers like
"it is considered respectful to address elders using the plural form"
or "plural greeting is common all throughout the Middle East".
Is it used only in rabinical literature or in other contexts?

Thank  you very much,
David Sevilla, Spain

>From kwrandolph AT gmail.com  Sat Dec 31 12:06:56 2011
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From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Blau - Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew;
        An Introduction
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George:

The question doesn’t concern shunning or not shunning knowledge, but is
this knowledge worth spending the time and money to acquire?

By way of analogy, do modern astronomers study all the fine details of the
Ptolomaic model of the solar system, or are they satisfied with learning
just the main outline of it while concentrating on studying an updated
Copernican model? Or if a biologist really wanted to learn biology, would a
scientist waste his time learning the minor details of the anti-scientific
theory of evolution, or would he concentrate on biology? So likewise, if
this book is based on unobservable theories (hence non-scientific theories)
such as proto-Semitic, proto-Hebrew, Documentary Hypothesis and other
similar beliefs that I view as invalid because of their
religio-philosophical roots and lack of observable data, why spend the time
and money studying its minor details unless I want to give a detailed
refutation of it? This is not shunning knowledge, rather prioritizing study
time.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 9:18 PM, George Athas 
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> It's a very worthwhile book to read. You'd be silly not to read it, unless
> you shunned knowledge, which is far more than just silly.
>
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Director of Postgraduate Studies
> Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
>
> On 31/12/2011, at 4:12 AM, "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Isaac:
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 10:19 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> You may want to look at the book to see the prevailing thoughts of the
> >> dominant learned establishment on the Hebrew language, but be prepared
> to
> >> be greatly annoyed by it.
> >>
> >> Isaac Fried, Boston University
> >>
> >> LOL
> >
> > I already know the “prevailing thoughts of the dominant learned
> > establishment on the Hebrew language”, not in all the gory detail, but 
> > in
> > the broad overview. If that is all this book is, then it is not worth the
> > time and money. Thanks.
> >
> > Karl W. Randolph.
>