Re: Bats are the best birds.

"On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:34:52 -0500, in article
<qmkmf1lcmtmcgv1f3534pgtehjbtd2sfrt@xxxxxxx>, David Jensen stated..."
>
>On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 04:25:45 -0400, in talk.origins
>"Robert J. Kolker" <nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
><3m0gcaF14fgbfU2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>Walter Bushell wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Besides reliance on the Hebrew texts would keep the interpretation of
>>> the Bible confined to scholars as the average Christian cannot be
>>> expected to learn the language. If Hebrew is need what becomes of Martin
>>> Luther's principle of every man being able to interpret the Bible for
>>> himself (and his wife and children naturally).
>>
>>Easy. Learn Hebrew. It is easier to learn than Greek or Russian. I have
>>been reading the scriptures in Hebrew and Aramaic since I was a kid.
>
>In some ways it is easy, in others, it is incomprehensible, since it is
>a dead language and has a very small literary base. Multiple meanings,
>idiom, and natural usage changes over time are among the problems with
>it. I would also guess that you read a Hebrew that has the word spacing
>and vowel marks added, rather than the HBRWTHTHSTHWRDSPCNGNDVWLMRKSLFTT.
>I wonder if written Hebrew, at the beginning, wasn't just a cheat sheet
>for those who weren't good enough to memorize what they were expected
>to.
>

It is, of course, a very subjective thing as to which language
is easier than which language. For a child growing up in a culture,
the language of that culture is obvious. As far as the writing, I
would mention that ancient Greek was written without word spacing or
punctuation, and without accents and "breathing" marks.

For a person who knows only an Indo-European language (English,
German, Spanish, Russian, and so on), a non-Indo-European language
represents a major hurdle. The vocabulary of Indo-European languages
is mostly somewhat related, so that one can make some guesses (think
of "father", "Vater", "padre", and so on), and the syntax is
somewhat similar. The Semitic languages (such as Hebrew) have this
unusual system of changing the verb form by a modification of the
vowels.

But, as I said, it's a very subjective thing. And I little
kid can pick up a language much easier than even a teen-ager.


--
---Tom S. <http://talkreason.org/articles/chickegg.cfm>
"What power of mental vision enabled your master Plato to discern the ...
process which ... the deity adopted in building the structure of the universe?
...a system that seems to be the result of idle theorizing rather than of real
research" Cicero: De Natura Deorum 1.8.19

.

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