scholarly journals Amen to daat: on the foundations of Jewish epistemology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Samuel Lebens
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Epistemic Norms

Abstract I argue that the Hebrew Bible adopts a non-doxastic account of propositional faith. In coming to this conclusion, we shall discover that Biblical Hebrew has no word for belief. What ramifications might this have had for biblical and Jewish epistemology? I begin to trace the sort of epistemic norms that might emerge from an epistemology that approaches knowledge by thinking about faith, rather than belief.

New Directions in the Computational Analysis of Biblical Hebrew Grammar

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Miller-Naudé ◽  
Jacobus A Naudé
Keyword(s):  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
North American ◽  
Computational Analysis ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
European Database ◽  
New Directions ◽  
African Context

The concern of the paper is to highlight how computational analysis of Biblical Hebrew grammar can now be done in very sophisticated ways and with insightful results for exegesis. Three databases, namely, the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC) Database, the Accordance Hebrew Syntactic Database, and the Andersen-Forbes Syntactic Database,are compared in terms of their relation to linguistic theory (or, theories), the nature and spectrum of retrieved data, and the representation of synchronic and diachronic linguistic variation. Interaction between different contexts, including the African context, are promoted namely between linguists working on Biblical Hebrew and exegetes working on the Hebrew Bible by illustrating how exegesis and language are intimately connected, as well as among geographical contexts by comparing a European database (ETCBC), a North American database (Accordance) and a Southern hemisphere database (Andersen-Forbes).

Sickness and Healing

2020 ◽  
pp. 310-325
Author(s):  
Deborah Rooke
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Ritual Action ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
At Home

Following some methodological remarks the chapter briefly reviews the vocabulary of sickness used in the biblical Hebrew text. It then examines instances of sickness and healing that are described in the Hebrew Bible, in order to establish how sickness is understood and how ritual might therefore relate to it. Aspects considered include the relationship between sickness and sin; whether and how YHWH is involved in causing sickness; epidemics versus individual cases of sickness; and instances of ritual action, broadly understood, that are used to address sickness-related issues. Such instances of ritual action include consulting a functionary such as a priest or prophet, and performing ritual laments and prayers either at home or at a shrine. Two instances of concerns relating to childbearing are also considered, both of which are pictured in the context of ritual action at a shrine.

Biblical Quotations in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls and Their Contribution to the Study of the Babylonian Reading Tradition

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
Dorota Molin
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Biblical Hebrew

Dorota Molin’s article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from the sixth–seventh centuries CE for the study of the pre-Masoretic Babylonian reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Biblical quotations within these bowls constitute the only direct documentation of Biblical Hebrew from Babylonia at that time. The phonetic spelling of the quotations provides much information about their pronunciation. In a series of case studies Molin shows that the pronunciation of the quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. She also demonstrates that they reflect interference from the Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants, and that the writers drew from an oral tradition of the Hebrew Bible.

“International” forms of Biblical Hebrew personal names

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
Tsvi Sadan
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Morphological Adaptation ◽  
Personal Names

The present study attempts to examine what presumably guided Zamenhof in choosing “international” forms for Biblical Hebrew personal names when he translated the whole Hebrew Bible into Esperanto. A comparison of these names graphically and phonetically with their equivalents in eight possible source languages, i.e., Hebrew, Latin, Italian, French, English, German, Polish and Russian, reveals a preference for Hebrew, German and Polish forms in descending order as possible etymons ascribable to Zamenhof’s own linguistic background. The morphological adaptation of these names is conditioned by the phonetic characteristics of their etymons.

“My Thoughts Are (Not) Your Thoughts.” Transposed Second-Order Thinking in the Hebrew Bible

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Gericke
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Twilight Zone ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ways Of Thinking

Following 19th-century distinctions between Hellenism and Hebraism, many popular 20th-century histories of Western philosophy assigned the intellectual world of the Hebrew Bible to a twilight zone between late mythological and early philosophical ways of thinking. Partly in response to this, research in Semitic languages during that time began to include comparative-linguistic arguments hoping to demonstrate radical structural incommensurability between Hebrew and Greek ways of thinking. In the latest trend in the associated research, a multi-disciplinary dialogue has been initiated on the subject of “second-order thinking” within the ancient Near East “before” or “outside” Greek philosophy. In this article, the author aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion by suggesting that Biblical Hebrew as religious language already presupposes an intricate variety of transposed second-order thinking.

THE USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOME BIBLICAL TOPONYMS

2002 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-349
Author(s):  
S. Noah Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Linguistic Community ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Long Period

AbstractBiblical Hebrew like other languages exhibits diachronic linguistic changes. One such linguistic change observable in the Hebrew Bible is the use of the definite article in the development of some biblical toponyms. What is behind the different forms of the same place-name, such as 'the Mount Gilboa' ( ) in 1 Sam. xxxi 1 vs. 'Mount Gilboa' ( ) in 1 Ch. x 1? It is observed that the use or absence of the article is by no means an accident but the result of a semantic change over a long period of use by the linguistic community. Furthermore, the use of the article in the development of toponyms shows the relative dates of writing of biblical books. The outcome of the study indicates the archaic character of the books of the Pentateuch and Joshua, and relative late dates of writing of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah.

Discord between the Tiberian Written and Reading Traditions

2020 ◽  
pp. 227-280
Author(s):  
Aaron D. Hornkohl
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Real Language ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Biblical Sources

Aaron Hornkohl examines two features in the Tiberian reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew, namely the qal construct infinitive and the 3ms possessive suffix that is attached to plural nouns and some prepositions. The article argues that although the vocalisation in both cases is secondary relative to what is represented by the consonantal text, it is not artificial and post-biblical, but rather a relatively ancient product of the real language situation of an earlier period, namely, the Second Temple Period, if not earlier. The view that the vocalisation has such historical depth and is the result of natural linguistic development is often dismissed by biblical scholars. By examining the distribution of forms within the Tiberian Masoretic version of the Hebrew Bible and in extra-biblical sources, especially the Dead Sea Scrolls and First Temple period epigraphy, Hornkohl convincingly demonstrates that the incongruity between the vocalisation and the consonantal text is earlier than Rabbinic Hebrew (second–third centuries CE).

What is an “Emotion” in the Hebrew Bible?

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 442-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Françoise Mirguet
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Self ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Scholarly Attention

As emotions and feelings in the Hebrew Bible are starting to receive scholarly attention, I question here the appropriateness of applying the modern concept of “emotions” to Biblical Hebrew. To which extent do our “emotions” fit the way Biblical Hebrew organizes human experience? The first part of the article analyzes a few Hebrew words commonly translated by terms of emotion in modern languages. Based on existing scholarship and a brief study of the words in their literary contexts, I suggest that the terms are not limited to the expression of what we call emotions; rather, they also include actions, movements, ritual gestures, and physical sensations, without strict dissociation among these different dimensions. This observation casts doubt on the existence of an isolated emotional realm in Biblical Hebrew’s organization of human experience. In the second half, I proceed in an opposite way: I start from a given situation – scenes where the self faces the suffering affecting another person and initiates different actions in favor of the sufferer. The examples highlight that the experience we commonly shape as an “emotion” – compassion or sympathy – does not receive such a construction in Biblical Hebrew. Besides, the experience affects the self not so much in its individuality as in its social relationships; as such, it also functions inside a given social hierarchy. I conclude by considering the potential impact that this reframed view on biblical “emotions” may have on this nascent field.


The historical background of the vowel ṣere in some Hebrew verbal and nominal forms

1994 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-144
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Khan
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Arabic Orthography ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Classical Arabic

One of the most important sources for our knowledge of the length of vowels in the Tiberian tradition of Biblical Hebrew is a corpus of manuscripts containing transcriptions of the Hebrew Bible into Arabic letters. In most of the manuscripts the Arabic transcription employs the orthography of Classical Arabic to represent the sounds of Hebrew. Since Classical Arabic orthography used matres lectionis systematically to mark long vowels we are able to reconstruct the distribution of long and short vowels in Tiberian Hebrew. The transcriptions show us that the main factors determining vowel length were stress and syllable structure.

Dripping with Kindness: The Meaning of rebîbîm

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-457
Author(s):  
Raanan Eichler
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
The Common

AbstractThe common noun רְבִיבִים occurs six times in the Hebrew Bible (Deut 32:2; Jer 3:3; 14:22; Mic 5:6; Pss 65:10[10]; 72:6). Its contexts clearly suggest that it belongs to the semantic domain of rain and dew, and that it denotes something desirable. But further precision has eluded interpreters, and the much-discussed Ugaritic words rbb and rb are of little help in this regard. The apparent Akkadian cognate rabbu A, unmentioned in the standard Biblical Hebrew lexica, is considered here, and it is argued on that basis that the word means “gentle rain” or “drizzle.”

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