Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

I know of no Copernican Revolution in our knowledge of Hebrew that relegates 
Blau's work to the Ptolomaic scrap heap.

Yes, Blau's work is worth the money and effort. Get it. Read it. Learn. You 
don't need to agree with everything you read in order to learn from it. In 
fact, I learn a lot from engaging with those with whom I end up disagreeing.

Of course, if one wants to judge the book before you've read it, go ahead. 
But I pity such epistemic folly and cannot really take seriously such ones as 
demonstrate that deplorable attitude, building their castles on sand.


GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)

On 01/01/2012, at 4:07 AM, "K Randolph" 
<kwrandolph AT gmail.com<mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com>> wrote:

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<mailto: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<mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com>> wrote:

> Isaac:
>
> On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 10:19 PM, Isaac Fried 
> <if AT math.bu.edu<mailto: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.