Great book on the abuses and proper way to use the original languages. It warns against the errors that Scholars and preachers still commit to this day ( )

One of the odder offshoots of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (at least notionally; it's unclear whether there was any direct influence) was the thesis that Biblical Hebrew represented, grammatically, a different way of thinking (and was, accordingly, intrinsically superior at mediating divine revelation).

Barr demolishes the supposed linguistic bases of this claim handily. After Barr, arguments regarding, for example, the relative superiority or inferiority of argument in a philosophical mode - one of the drivers behind the original claims - has to rest on other grounds than claims of "Semitic thought-forms".

Barr's work is of continuing use as a reminder of the risks in dabbling in technical areas when one has more enthusiasm than expertise, when a genuine expert may be waiting in the wings. ( )

Great book on the abuses and proper way to use the original languages. It warns against the errors that Scholars and preachers still commit to this day ( )

After this devastating review of TDNT, not only did they re-issue revised editions, but biblical scholars began to pay attention to linguistics.