RE: Made in Alexandria: The Origin of the Yahweh Cult
March 15, 2013 at 8:19 am
(This post was last modified: March 15, 2013 at 8:25 am by EGross.)
Oh, one more thing about the Hebrew language...
The current language was recreated in the 19th century, after falling into disuse. And while it was used for reading the scriptural texts, the modern Hebrew changed much of the structure as well as the pronounciations. For example, there are two sounds for a dalet which sounds like a "D" and "something else". But nobody knows how to do that "something else", so we always pronounce it as a "D" sound. There are some, such the Yemenites, who make is a DshZ combination, of sorts, but that could be from the Arabic influence. Even the gutterals are different than in the good old days. We glean that from the Talmudic texts that belittle the pronounciation of that Gallileans, and give several examples of how they pronounced badly, from which we can infer how they might have sounded.
I bring this up because, had Hebrew been correctly passed from generation to generation, then these sounds would not have been lost. The "Shema", which a Jew says at least twice a day, which the first 6 words are taught to every Jewish child, ends with the "D" sound that should be "the other" sound. And with such an important sentence, that a Jew is commanded to pronounce it aloud, perfectly, and clearly, you would think that this would have been passed down correctly over the generations. The sages wrote that the last letter ("D") should be extended longer than the rest. You cannot do that with a "D" noise.
And if a simple sound, which is critical in fulfilling that one mitzvah/commandment, that every Jewish child is taught, is in error, how many other things, from the period of Alexaner the Great and forward, had been mis-communicated. Not just something as simple as a sound, but the very words themselves. And if the words are suspect, then the stories that are made up of these words should also be suspect. The Jewish sages themselved admitted that the very people you might have thought wrote those texts, were primarily written by an anonymous group during the time of Ezra (most of Nach, inclding Isaiah).
In other words, ancient literature, not the word of god. And as fables, such as Snow Whilte changed over the years with each telling, can we say that the OT did not?
The current language was recreated in the 19th century, after falling into disuse. And while it was used for reading the scriptural texts, the modern Hebrew changed much of the structure as well as the pronounciations. For example, there are two sounds for a dalet which sounds like a "D" and "something else". But nobody knows how to do that "something else", so we always pronounce it as a "D" sound. There are some, such the Yemenites, who make is a DshZ combination, of sorts, but that could be from the Arabic influence. Even the gutterals are different than in the good old days. We glean that from the Talmudic texts that belittle the pronounciation of that Gallileans, and give several examples of how they pronounced badly, from which we can infer how they might have sounded.
I bring this up because, had Hebrew been correctly passed from generation to generation, then these sounds would not have been lost. The "Shema", which a Jew says at least twice a day, which the first 6 words are taught to every Jewish child, ends with the "D" sound that should be "the other" sound. And with such an important sentence, that a Jew is commanded to pronounce it aloud, perfectly, and clearly, you would think that this would have been passed down correctly over the generations. The sages wrote that the last letter ("D") should be extended longer than the rest. You cannot do that with a "D" noise.
And if a simple sound, which is critical in fulfilling that one mitzvah/commandment, that every Jewish child is taught, is in error, how many other things, from the period of Alexaner the Great and forward, had been mis-communicated. Not just something as simple as a sound, but the very words themselves. And if the words are suspect, then the stories that are made up of these words should also be suspect. The Jewish sages themselved admitted that the very people you might have thought wrote those texts, were primarily written by an anonymous group during the time of Ezra (most of Nach, inclding Isaiah).
In other words, ancient literature, not the word of god. And as fables, such as Snow Whilte changed over the years with each telling, can we say that the OT did not?
“I've done everything the Bible says — even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"— Ned Flanders
