[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: orion "Pure food" in 1QS



    [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set]
    [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
    [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]

>From Sarah Melcher:

> Dave, you have raised some interesting questions about how the semantic
> range of certain words can change over time. Would you let the list know
> specifically which passages you are consulting? I will consult
> Charlesworth to see if I can't find the contexts to which you are
> referring. I am engaged in research and writing now that attempts to
> incorporate synchronic and diachronic approaches to try to discern the
> segment of the semantic continuum that is represented by the cultural unit
> associated with these individual signs. I am finding that semiotics can
> provide a theoretical underpinning for the kind of research that we are
> doing. Which passages that use T-H-R-H are you studying?

Since posting this, Sarah has given me a trove of information that will
take some time to digest and compare.  I did want to answer the question
though; she mentioned two of them in a later post,  1QS 6.25 and 7.3.  I
would also note 4.5, where WAC and Vermes both translate "purity," and
5.13, where WAC translate "purity" but Vermes translates "pure meal."  I
don't have G-M available at the moment; my local library's copy seems to
have been either lost or stolen.  However, the inconsistency at 5.13
suggests to me that the semantic shift we are discussing may be more of an
assumption than an actual linguistic fact.  The consistent translation
"purity" at 4.5 would seem to reinforce this suggestion, but I'm interested
in what Sarah (and others) thinks of this thought.
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur/