The first thing that one needs to understand about Panini’s Law is that it is not a law. Frequently contravened in prose, and sometimes only rarely observed in poetry, this is the principle that lists will apparantly “always” feature shorter items before longer items. The classic examples in English are always given: “hook, line and sinker”, “lock, stock and barrel”, “bits and pieces”, “fine and dandy”. So prevalent is this theme that it is often referred to as a law, despite the fact that contraventions of this principle are so incredibly frequent. I wrote a poem once for a visiting academic (Gary Rendsburg of Rutgers University) who spoke of this “Law” at great length in one of our Classical Hebrew tutorials. His reply to my email flattered me (“a new Dr Seuss in the making!”) and, as I am now also flattered by its recent publication in the cleverly named Australian Mensa journal, TableAus, I reproduce it for you here.
Panini’s Law
30 01 2007Comments : 16 Comments »
Categories : Personal Reflections, Poetry, Random Musings
The Loss of a Prophet
27 01 2007Matthew 23:34-35 constitutes a wonderful (according to some, apocryphal¹) depiction of Jews murdering prophets. The idea, prevalent in early Christian literature, was also reflected in certain texts of Jewish origin. The most famous, perhaps, of these is The Ascension of Isaiah: a first-century text concerning the martyrdom of the Biblical prophet. Descriptions of his death are also found within both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds, and indications that this tradition also existed in reference to other prophets are scattered throughout the early Midrashim, as well as some of the Targums. The death of Jesus and the persecution of the early Christians was enough to make this theme a strong one within the Christian Bible and the passage from Matthew’s gospel is a fantastic example of its usage.
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Categories : Bible, Jewish Tradition
This Dark Angel, My Muse
24 01 2007I must believe that, deep in the yellowed hearts of tomes, salvation of a sort does lie. For how else to explain my jealous lust for literature? The eagerness with which I seize upon another text, wide-eyed and frantic with the desire to possess it, as though mere physical possession amounted to the immediate acquisition of knowledge. I line my walls with books that gaze down, frown down, upon me; spines like rows of unlit candles in an old-world tomb. Monuments to pagan gods, they squat on hallowed haunches, judging me in the darkness as I lie sweating in my bed. This room, Muse, is my temple and I its only priest. Long have I burned the midnight candle, seeking truth and wisdom from amongst the sullen shadows. Long have I flipped in vain through reticent tomes, their tight-lipped authors hiding kernals of knowledge in mountains of ancient prose: words like crooked footprints of some small bird, twisting and jagged on every soiled page. Long have I sought the wisdom of the ancients, long have I marvelled at my own prowess.
There is no space within my own cramped grave to carry all these precious works. There is no time within my own brief life to cast my eyes on every word. There is no room within my own small mind to learn the secrets of every book. My time on earth is filled with the pursuit of that which I cannot obtain. Driven, like a desperate moth, towards the light that must devour me; desperate as a driven leaf that makes its way towards the ground.
And my salvation? That I may, in my own small part, bequeath my words for those to come. That I may add my little name to books that others yet may read. “Since no man knows of aught he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?¹” O prince who never lived! Bard who never died! Lend me your words to fit my life! Give me your prose, whom you never knew! How could I employ my own words to describe myself? How may my own life be bound by sentiments that are my own? The need for a biographer has never been so great as now. Our generation comes and goes and epitaphs are not enough. A grave be graced with more than words: give us our monuments in text! Headstones, moss-grown, lie in ruins; shattered tombs lie in decay. Books, when broken, are complete; tomes rot but the words remain.
¹ Hamlet, V.2
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Categories : Personal Reflections, Random Musings
I Am Therefore I Think
21 01 2007There is a rather entrenched notion within the world of psychological philosophy that in order to truly understand an idea we must gain a thorough understanding of the semantics of that idea’s expression. Put in other words, an awareness of language must necessarily precede an awareness of the ideas put into words. Can ideas not put into words be understood? Better still, are they even ideas? This question is a powerful one and, in many respects, it lay at the heart of Orwell’s frightening classic, 1984. If our languages are hijacked and words like “freedom” robbed of their true meaning (with concepts like “freedom” being thus bereft of linguistic expression), the ideas that were previously communicated with these words will simply cease to be. Of course, this is impossible; but not for the obvious reason.
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Categories : Random Musings
Changing Plans
15 01 2007Just a brief note to say that, within the space of last week, several important changes have taken place.
• I am no longer going to be doing an MA in English Literature alongside my PhD; instead, I am going to be doing an MA in Ancient History and am now in the process of choosing my majors. While the university offers courses in the history of both Greece and Rome, I may decide to settle on a major in Egyptology instead.
• I have changed my supervisor and, in so doing, my PhD thesis proposal. Previously working under the supervision of Prof. Rifaat Ebied, I shall now be working with Dr Ian Young – who was also my supervisor during my Honours year, 2006.
My new topic (in brief; details await a little more research on my part):
• I will investigate claims that Nehemiah is composed of two compositional strands, broadly divided into Nehemiah’s memoirs and ‘everything else’. Some scholars have argued that we can differentiate between the two strands on the basis of linguistics, and that a late author has betrayed their own position in time with the high frequency of Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH) forms. Similar to the work that I did on my Honours thesis (although that was only concerned with one particular LBH feature), I will need to undertake a thorough linguistic analysis of the text in question.
• The nature of this topic is such that a discussion is also in order concerning the provenance of the book in question. Researching the origins of Nehemiah will happily involve studying the Septuagint (LXX), the extant Targums¹, the deuterocanonical Esdras texts, as well as relevant materials from the Dead Sea Scrolls. I look forward to being busy!
My candidature does not commence until March 5th, so I am hoping to utilise as much of the intervening time as possible in making some headway, the better to extend the overall time that I am given. My scholarship does not kick in until my formal enrollment, so I am without money between now and then and thus desperately in need of work. I am also looking for a place to live as I would like to move out as soon as is reasonably possible, making the old adage that a change is as good as a holiday rather ironic. While in some instances that might be true, this change is proving to be a most stressful “holiday” indeed!
¹ Addendum: there are no extant Targums to Nehemiah. Whoops.
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Categories : Personal Reflections
Tradition
9 01 2007I was standing in a bookstore once and browsing through the books in the Gender Studies section. I came across a book that, I could imagine, had caused the individual responsible for placing it there some consternation. Entitled, God Wears Lipstick, this book could have just as easily found its way into the Religion section of the same store. What does one do? It has “God” in the title, and appears to be a feminist tract on divinity; yet, the book also has the word “lipstick” in the title, and is clearly a feminist tract on divinity. It may have been the colour of the book (a bright pink), coupled with the cover design (red feminine lips), that enabled the nameless individual to make up his (?) mind and place the book in the Gender Studies section instead. This is despite the fact that it is subtitled, “Kabbalah for Women”.
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Categories : Jewish Tradition
Our Mother Who Art in Heaven
8 01 2007DBS has another well thought out post, this one concerning the status of women within Judaism. While he doesn’t propose a specific solution, the recognition of the problem is part of the solution in itself, and his post is well worth reading. One of the points that he makes is worthy, on its own, of greater elaboration: that of the manner in which marginalised communities internalise their oppression. DBS makes this point in relation to the way in which traditional Jewish women accept their status and seek to justify it. This issue runs deeper, however, and is not necessarily a negative phenomenon. The desire to justify traditional Jewish misogynism has given birth to specific forms of feminist hermeneutics and resulted in extremely fruitful studies of the Bible, the Talmud and the entire system of halakha.
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Categories : Bible, Jewish Tradition
Biblical Studies Carnival XIII
4 01 2007The latest Biblical Studies Carnival is presently happening over at Codex. As usual, it provides an eclectic and comprehensive range of posts on linguistics, Tanakh, New Testament, Theology, Patristics and Archaeology: and more! Be sure to check it out.
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Categories : Bible
Elisha Qimron
3 01 2007I attended a small and informal lecture today, given by the notable Elisha Qimron. Recognised as one of the leading scholars in Dead Sea Scrolls-related research, Qimron spoke to approximately ten people from the University of Sydney (amongst whom were Dr Ian Young and Dr Shani Berrin) before flying back home to Ben-Gurion University. The title of his lecture was “The Form ואבנה in Early Hebrew”, although this was something of a misnomer. Rather than referring to the word as ואבנה, Qimron should have referred to it as ואקטלה/ונקטלה, for he was really concerned with non-apocopated 1st person forms of the wayyiqtol wci altogether. Not only that, but his overall drive was of more relevance to Qumranic Hebrew in particular than to Early Hebrew in general: especially as the latter term tends to be used these days to refer to the pre-Biblical variety. Read the rest of this entry »
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Categories : Semitic Languages, Bible
On Crowns and Pointy Hats
1 01 2007I just found this fascinating picture from the Levi Machzor of Hamburg, c. 1350 CE. The depiction appears to be of a bride and groom, and it features a quote from the Biblical Song of Songs:
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Categories : Jewish Tradition, Translation
Echoes from the Ether: