RE: Numerics

But as I understand it, you are using the vowels for your analysis when the
original text of several thousand years ago didn't have them-i.e. didn't
have the pointing marks.

I don't understand how failing to answer questions dissipates their impact.
I run into people all the time in this area who fail to answer questions.
They are usually young-earth creationists who won't answer geologic
questions. I never knew it was for fear of 'dissipating' their impact.

  _____

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of David Bradford
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 6:33 AM
To: Glenn Morton
Cc: ASA Message Board
Subject: Re: Numerics

Glenn

I won't try to answer all your issues in one reply as that just dissipates
the impact of them all. But I must address one fundamental misunderstanding
that seems to be a major stumbling block for you.

The Masoretes did not introduce any new letters into the Hebrew scriptures.
Nor did they deliberately remove any. Their great concerne (in extremis) was
that the true understanding of the Torah in particular was in danger of
being lost. This was due to the Hebrew language falling out of everyday use,
just as Latin has. The Jewish background of the Masoretes forbade them to
make material changes in the Torah, so what they did was introduce a system
of marks (known as pointing) that could be added above, below and within
letters, to assist with pronunciation. The net effect was to fix the vowel
sounds; but this does not mean that they added vowels as extra characters.

David

  
Received on Sun Jun 5 10:10:23 2005