Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kirk Lowery <Kirk AT GrovesCenter.org>]

B-Hebrew Internet Discussion List
Monthly Reminder

B-Hebrew is a forum for the discussion of the Hebrew Bible: its
language, grammar and content. Matters of history, archaeology,
anthropology and other "neighboring" topics are also within the scope of
discussion when they directly relate to or illumine the understanding of
the Hebrew Bible. But the central focus of this forum is the text itself.

B-Hebrew is a public forum, with members from every part of the globe.
Members include all levels of formal training in biblical studies,
ancient and modern Hebrew and other related languages. Members represent
a variety of faiths or no faith-commitment at all. B-Hebrew is a public
forum, which means that the level of discussion ranges from the most
elementary of topics to those that are highly technical and academic.
All members are encouraged to initiate and participate in discussions
regardless of their formal training or lack of it.

Given the nature of B-Hebrew, members are expected to maintain a
standard of behavior that promotes discussion:

  o members will use rhetoric that is polite and civil; inflammatory
    expressions, obscenities and hate speech will be severely dealt with

  o members will not attack the character or motives of other members,
    but will assume good faith on the part of others

  o members will not disparage the lack of knowledge or language skill
    of other members, but will gently correct mistakes and
    misunderstandings

  o members will sign each post with their full and real name, in the
    interest of accountability for polite and civil discourse

  o members will not use B-Hebrew as a platform for advocating a faith
    commitment ("faith commitment" includes "no faith commitment")

  o members will comply with the requests of the moderators, especially
    desisting from continued posting when a thread is declared closed

  o members will not use B-Hebrew for the commercial promotion of
    products in which they have an interest

The moderators of B-Hebrew are responsible for maintaining an atmosphere
that is conducive to public discussion of topics within its charter. The
moderators are not judges of the truth or plausibility of ideas; they do
not enforce commonly accepted theories or rule on the content of posts
except insofar as they are within the scope of B-Hebrew. The moderators,
of course, have their own views and opinions which are sometimes
expressed on B-Hebrew, but in the role as a list member and not as
moderator.

Upon joining the list, members are put on unmoderated status, which
means that their messages are automatically posted, without first being
approved by the moderators. Members who repeatedly break the list rules,
especially in the area of polite and civil conduct and respect towards
other members, are first warned by the moderators (usually off-list). If
they continue to ignore the list rules, they are placed on moderation.
This means that all of their messages must be read and approved before
being passed on to the list. Members who continue to offend despite
moderation may be unsubscribed, all at the discretion of the moderators.

For additional information about the B-Hebrew forum, see the webpage
http://www.GrovesCenter.org/bhebrew.html.

B-Hebrew Moderators

George Athas, PhD
Director of Postgraduate Studies
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>

Yigal Levin, PhD
The Israel and Golda Koschitzky
Department of Jewish History
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat Gan. 52900
ISRAEL
<Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>

Kirk Lowery, PhD
President & Senior Research Fellow
The J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
<Kirk AT GrovesCenter.org>