To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Homonyms
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 06:39:38 -0600
On Friday 30 May 2003 06:36, Kirk Lowery wrote:
> c stirling bartholomew wrote:
> > Will someone please under a different topic heading explain to me
> > what the large roman numerals in the articles of BDB and K&B mean?
> > Do they indicate different "words" with the same graphic form?
>
> I believe these refer to different lexical entries with the same
> spelling but with different meanings, i.e., homonyms. The order in
> which they occur in the lexicon determines the number.
>
> Their usage is very inconsistent, however. I would not trust the
> ordering to be the same between BDB and KBS, for example. Always look
> up the lemma when citing...
Kirk,
Could you expand on "look up the lemma" a little? For example, when BDB and
KBS disagree in such a case, how do you go about deciding which (if any) is
more accurate? I sometimes turn to Ugaritic or Aramaic, but as often as not
those are no help. What kind of approach do you use to sort these out?