Why does not the same academic rigour apply to the numerous metaphors and
themes disclosed by the hebrew language masoretic text ("MT")?
My posts do not seek to treat the MT any differently than Moby-Dick.
The statement that:
כי לא תעזר נפשי לשאול לא תתן חסידך לראות שחת
appears susceptible of two inquiries:
a. is it true?; and
b. was it made?
I can understand the out of bounds nature here of inquiry "a." But inquiry
"b" seems to me to fit squarely within the purpose of this forum.
After all, is not the entire purpose of language use or study, to figure out
what is being said? If you can't determine what meaning attaches to a
particular assembly of alefbet letters, does not it all become just so much
meaningless dust on the paper?
regards,
fred burlingame
On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 7:46 PM, George Athas
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:
> Fred, it means we will subject Hebrew to the normal rigours of academic
> inquiry, just as we would Aramaic, English, Swahili, or Byzantine Greek.
> There’s no scope here on B-Hebrew for treating Hebrew differently as a holy
> language. I hope you can appreciate this standard.
>
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
> www.moore.edu.au
>
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