Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kirk Lowery <Kirk AT GrovesCenter.org>]

The moderators would like to make a couple of comments about the nature and status of the b-hebrew list.

1. B-Hebrew has always been a list for the general public to participate. That includes scholars, but not exclusively. The purpose of B-Hebrew is to promote discussion about the Hebrew Bible, to understand how others think about it and its message, and to find illumination. There is no guarantee one will find enlightenment on this list!

2. As a public list, there is no intention to validate posts for their "truth", nor is there any obligation on the part of the moderators to correct "erroneous" postings.  As with all things on the Internet, caveat lector: let the reader beware.

3. An Internet discussion list like B-Hebrew is a true democracy: no one person or group can "dominate" or censor the discussion. (Well, except for the moderators, of course!) There is more than enough bandwidth to handle thousands of postings daily. In a low volume list such a B-Hebrew, some voices appear to be "louder". But in fact, the voices that are present are there because they choose to post and reply to other postings.

4. The moderators will censor inappropriate postings (as outlined here: http://www.grovescenter.org/bhebrew.html#respect). This means that some allowed postings may be distasteful to some list members. They have three ways to respond: (a) ignore those postings; (b) delete the posts; alternatively, delete all postings by a particular author; (c) create a "filter" in their email programs to automatically delete or otherwise remove posts from their inbox.  Other than leaving the list, there are no other choices.

5. To my knowledge (and 19 years as a moderator of B-Hebrew), no one's mind has been changed as a result of debates here. But we have been given insight into the thinking of others from widely different ways of life.

Speaking for myself, I have been intellectually enriched and challenged by all of you.

--
Blessings,
Kirk
B-Hebrew co-moderator
--
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
President & Senior Research Fellow
The J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research