Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Karl,

That was a very elaborate way of saying, "I refuse to engage with critical 
scholarship."

Happy building!


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

On 04/01/2012, at 3:19 PM, "K Randolph" 
<kwrandolph AT gmail.com<mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com>> wrote:

George:

On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 3:36 PM, George Athas 
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>> wrote:
I know of no Copernican Revolution in our knowledge of Hebrew that relegates 
Blau's work to the Ptolomaic scrap heap.

You miss the point. It is not a Copernican Revolution that relegates Blau’s 
work to the Ptolomaic scrap heap. It’s just that if the work is based on a 
faulty foundation, no amount of careful kludging together will rescue a 
faulty argument.

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.

The question here is a matter of prioritizing time: will I learn more from a 
hour of disagreeing with Blau, or analyzing a couple of chapters of Isaiah? 
If I have only an hour available, the answer is clear—Isaiah wins hands down. 
Blau only if I have time beyond that. Most of the time I don’t have that 
extra time available, beyond taking care of other matters.

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.

There are many things I don’t involve myself. For example, I haven’t read “On 
the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of 
Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” by Charles Darwin because I already 
know he used faulty, unscientific logic in the writing of that book. The 
picture I am getting from this discussion is that Blau used faulty, 
unscientific logic in the compilation of this book under discussion: yes 
there may be a diamond in it, but it looks as if I may have to move a ton of 
rock to find it.

The questions of faulty basis and prioritizing are what drive me here.


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

Karl W. Randolph.