Re: Babel in the east or not?

Clinton Moreland-Stringham wrote:

> >
> > Can you cite any of these supposed Jacobite interventions?
> >
>         The first one off the top of my head is the infamous "Thou shal=
t
> not suffer a witch to live." The actual hebrew here means 'poisoner'.
Sure, but you can't take that out of context.  Where are your sources
on this? Do you know Biblical Hebrew? Surely Stephen Belsky could
help us in this -- is he still on the list?

The reason I question what you're saying is not because it's impossible o=
r
even unlikely, but because Biblical Hebrew was a highly idiomatic languag=
e,
using all sorts of puns and plays on words, especially in the Bible (such
linguistic games were a strong feature of Biblical literature, as any pas=
sing
knowledge of the Bible with all its footnotes on sound symbolism would
tell).  So, if you take a really literalist approach (something which, BT=
W,
I find is just as common among critics of the Bible as among its most
avid proponents), you can read meaning into people's actions that just
aren't there.

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Tom Wier <twier@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"S=F4=F0 is gecy=FEed / =FE=E6t mihtig God manna
cynes / w=EAold w=EEde-ferh=F0."
 _Beowulf_, ll. 700-702
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