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Showing posts from June, 2017

On Orality (why oral-literate isn't the only spectrum to think about)

Since Walter Ong's book back in the 80s many have written on the oral-literate spectrum. Maxey , amongst others, correctly criticises the polarising of oral and literate cultures, and points out that it's easy to read 'primitive' for 'oral' and 'developed' for 'literate' - not a divide we want to promote in these post-colonial (or global) days. I want to bring up another issue. It seems to me that oral-literate is not the only relevant spectrum. We also need to consider mono-cultural to multi-cultural, and monolingual to multilingual spectra. If the people we are working with are fairly mono-cultural this will also affect the way people think. (I was going to say that people are less likely to be able to think the way others think, but in light of recent events such as Brexit, the election of right-wing leaders, and so on, it seems we're pretty poor at that in Western countries too.) Another important factor is that Western cultures ten...

The Idiom 'Son of'

Here, just for fun, are some idioms containing the phrase 'son of' in Hebrew: בְנֵי־הÖøאֱלֹה֓ים   ā€“ ā€˜sons of the god(s)ā€™ (Gen 6:2) i.e. heavenly beings  cf  Psa 29:1 וְנֹחַ בֶּן־שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹ×Ŗ שׁÖø× Öøה   ā€“ ā€˜Noah was son of six hundred yearsā€™ (Gen 7:6) i.e. he was six hundred years old בְנֵי־קֶדֶם   ā€“  ā€˜sons of the Eastā€™ (Gen 29:1) i.e. eastern peoples אֶ×Ŗ־בֶּן הַבּÖøקÖø×Ø  ā€“ ā€˜son of the herdā€™   (Lev 1:5) i.e. one [animal] of the herd וּבְנֵי בְל֓יַּעַל   ā€“  ā€˜son of worthlessnessā€™ (1Sa 10:27; 1Ki 21:10, 13  cf  Dan 11:14) i.e. troublemakers, scoundrels הÖøאÖøדÖøם   בְּנֵי   ā€“  ā€˜sons of manā€™ (1Sa 26:19) i.e. men, humans ל֓בְנֵי־חַי֓ל   ā€“ ā€˜sons of strengthā€™ (2Sa 2:7; 13:28; 17:10ā€¦) i.e. brave בְנֵֽי־עַוְלÖø֖ה   ā€“ ā€˜sons of injusticeā€™ (2Sa 3:34; 7:10  cf  Hos 10:9) i.e. criminals בֶן־מÖøוֶ×Ŗ  ā€“ ā€˜son of deathā€™ (2Sa 12:5) ā€“ i.e. someone who deserves to die אֶחÖøד מ֓בְּנֵי הַנְּב֓יא֓ים ā€“...