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March 16, 2007
This Seems Dangerous
Back in November of last year I mentioned that Logos Bible Software was about to offer what they called The Ugarit Library on CD-ROM. The Ugaritic Library consists of seven works (in 12 volumes), primarily reference works, on and about the Ugaritic texts and language. They have just released an online video demo. The indexing and navigations capabilities shown in the demo are truly impressive. But the idea, conveyed in the demo, that someone who knows neither Hebrew nor Ugaritic could successfully use this library is, in my humble opinion, dangerous. Even knowing only Hebrew, and knowing it well, without knowing Ugaritic could get one in a heap of trouble.
Our knowledge of Ugaritic is still growing at a significant rate and the majority the books in this library are in one way or another quite dated. Sure, they are still useful tools but one must use them in the context of the ongoing scholarly discussion. Without that context, good intentions aimed a becoming informed or informing others will turn quickly into error. As it has again become popular to say, "Mistakes were made." Because of the difficulty of the Ugaritic language, they are still being made; we just aren't sure what they are.
It is even more important to understand the linguistic relationship between the Ugaritic language and Hebrew. It is not as straight forward as the demo implies. And the relationship between Ugaritic literature and the Hebrew Bible is even more complex and in many cases does not yield to convincing explanation.
The idea that a pastor, lacking the necessary linguistic background, can use this CD library to inform his or her sermons may or may not be good marketing. It sure is a bad idea. And I say this as a contributor to one of the volumes in The Ugaritic Library.
Posted by Duane Smith at March 16, 2007 7:04 AM | Read more on Ugarit |
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