The funny thing about what words mean is how hard it is to notice when they mean more than one thing, as, for example, “funny.” The way I’m using it here the word doesn’t mean “humorous” but, rather, “odd.” Two thousand years hence, will scholars be arguing over whether “funny” should be translated into the…
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In a recent discussion here, Paula asks about where the line is drawn between “translation” and what I called “explanation.” It’s a really important question. I don’t think I have an answer in terms of definitions, but I have a few examples, starting with just English. (It’s helpful to look at English to English “translations”…
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I’m following up on my last post about gender and Modern Hebrew. And again, the point is not that ancient Hebrew and Greek are the same as Modern Hebrew (they’re not), but rather that we can learn about how gender works in human language by looking at examples. The Hebrew word ish is one word…
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Recent posts from my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives:
