> From: Yigal Levin <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: [b-hebrew] Proto-MT > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > I was asked off-list why the biblical quotes in the Talmud (and, I will > add, > pre-10th century Jewish liturgy and other literature as well) are not used > by scholars as evidence of the "proto-MT". With the permission of the > person > who asked, I'll post may answer on-list. > > Basically, there are two reasons that I can think of. One is the general > disdain that Christian scholars traditionally have had for all things > Jewish. This is an old and ingrained tradition in Christianity, that > precluded many Christian scholars in the past from even being familiar with > the Talmud, not to mention using it as evidence for anything. By the way, > the animosity was mutual, and it is very rare to find a "traditional" > Jewish > source quoting a Christian scholar. Hopefully lists such as this one are > doing their bit to clear the air. > > The second reason is a more "serious" one. We don't have any significant > very old mms. of the Talmud either. This means that there will always be > the > suspicion, that in cases where the Talmud was quoting what seems to be the > MT (or "proto-MT"), it did originally have a different text, which was > "updated" to fit the GRU, as time went on. How would anyone know? > > Dr. Yigal Levin >
Of course, the traditions of sarsehu vedarshehu (politely translated "twist it and expound it") inadvertantly supports the proto-MT, as well as the examples of "don't read A, read B". The "proto-MT" was the assumed background against which these midrashic types of comments are made and later textual transmission is not a factor, (unless one wanted to claim that the whole argumentations were 100% inventions and inserted into the rabbinic texts after the fact and with no apparent motive [I don't 'go there', into such conspiracies, since I like my water to flow downhill.]). -- Randall Buth, PhD www.biblicalulpan.org [email protected] Biblical Language Center Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
