Puzzlement over the curative effects of Barr

Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@wellesley.edu)
Fri, 10 May 1996 18:13:32 -0400 (EDT)

Rod Decker wrote:

Subj: RE: Footnote to Carl's reply to Ken

Sounds to me like we ought to recommend the reading of James Barr's
_Semantics of Biblical Language_! It would suppress some apparently
irrestible speculation regarding the Hebrew mind!

_/Rodney J. Decker, Asst. Prof./NT Calvary Theol. Seminary\_
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It isn't clear to me quite what Rod's point is. Not only did I read Barr's
book when it came out, I was on the panel at SBL which discussed it--and which
demonstrated the remarkable bias of that work against both the Kittelsche
Woerterbuch and German scholarship generally. Do you think Barr proved that
ancient Israelites believed that people think with their heads? And feel love
in their hearts? Or just how is a reading of Barr supposed to cure us of such
(in fact commonplace) understandings of the meanings of Hebrew terminology?

Edward Hobbs