On Saturday 23 August 2003 16:01, Jim West wrote:
> At 04:36 PM 8/23/03 -0500, you wrote:
> >All this reflects its broad usage. And any particular usage can be
> > debated as to which nuance is intended.
>
> All of which proves the old dictum- words dont have meaning, they have
> usage. Without context words are meaningless. It is particular texts
> which have to be discussed in such debates because generalities about
> "nephesh" meaning "throat" or "life-blood" or the like are meaningless
> without specific textual contexts.
>
Yes. This is why the term "basic meaning" when applied to words raises my
hackles. My own somewhat less erudite version of what Jim said is: words
mean what they mean because a society chooses to use them that way.
--
Dave Washburn http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"God does a lot of things in the Psalms
that He can't get away with in systematic theology."