Chiastic Structures in Mark

[Paul Younan]

Paul,

I am not experienced enough to recognize poetic elements, however, I do understand them.

A typical Jewish play is something like: "The painter painted the painting..." (However, this is English, but it demonstrates originality)
Revelation 5:1 has something like "sealed with seven seals". Seven is shaba in Aramaic.
So it says: "Tabaya taba shaba"

You wanted one example, I give you one which I understand myself. I will not defend the writings on chapter seven from Bauscher. Maybe he indeed is wrong. And being a native speaker or not, sorry with all respect to you, but that's really not an argument. I know people who learned a new language in 6 months without accent.

Shlama Akhi Distazo

I don't care who you know who learned a new language, whether they did it in 6 months or 6 days, with an accent or without. Being a native speaker is not only an argument, it is the strongest one possible. There is no other argument that comes remotely close in importance. If you have convinced yourself otherwise, then you are only deluding yourself. The reason your friend learned whatever language he learned is because a native speaker made it possible. And a student is not greater than his teacher. But anyway, I digress.

You asked me if there was a Semitic poem in revelation chapter 7.

I was surprised by your inquiry because you've been around long enough to know, that that question is akin to me asking you if there is a Semitic poem in the Book of Mormon. In your tradition, the Book of Mormon is not accepted as inspired scripture. Likewise, in my tradition the Book of Revelation is not accepted as inspired scripture. That is the reason for my comparison of the two. I could have substituted any of a number of books the Coptic tradition accepts as inspired scripture, which your tradition does not. The point is the same. If you get my point, great. If not, that's fine too. There's nothing more to the argument than that single point.

Despite my surprise at your inquiry, I bothered to answer your question with a resounding: No. There is no Semitic poem in Revelation chapter 7.

You then proceeded to quote a spurious, sophomoric and wholly uneducated article that Dave Bauscher wrote regarding the topic.

I then bothered to reply and tell you exactly why he is wrong. Yet, you continued to be combative and instead of simply accepting the reply, you continued with accusing me of being biased toward my tradition as well as arrogant due to my status of actually being a native speaker.

I'm afraid my years of experience with you on this forum is consistent with this attitude that you have.

Please refrain from asking me questions in the future, if you are already convinced that you or someone like Dave Bauscher already has the answer. I'm not interested in, nor have the time for this type of exercise in futility with you.

If you insist on being combative and argumentative, please come equipped with more than just your opinion and wit. The saying goes that a little bit of knowledge can be a very dangerous thing, and I'm afraid that is more applicable to you than just about anyone else I know. I'm not sure who exactly you are trying to impress, but it's certainly not me.

You rightly said that you don't have enough experience to recognize any poetry. Ironically, that is the very thing (experience) that a native speaker has. Something you feel is unimportant and "not an argument". Which begs the question: why did you bother to ask me?

Along that line of thought, I've many times suggested to you that if you dedicated half the time to bothering yourself with learning the language that you do being argumentative, you would not need to rely on me (or Dave Bauscher) to form your own conclusion.

If I sound upset at you, please know that I am not. If anything, I am more frustrated at myself for allowing you to do this more than I should have.

Future incidents like this one will result in your ban from this forum.