By Charles Halton on Saturday, 25 July 2009 at 6:12 pm
A friend sent me this quote from Mark Smith’s Untold Stories. Doubtless I’m preaching to the choir but here it is anyway:
Scholars of Ugaritic and Bible should continue to insist on a rigorous knowledge of primary sources even as the discipline engages recently developed methods. . . . . By the same token, the research of specialists or nonspecialists alike legitimately deserves criticism if it does not exhibit knowledge of primary sources. A field lacking basic professional standards is by definition not professional, and failure to invoke such standards surrenders its identity as an arena for rigorous research. (page 223)
Comments (5)
Category: All,Fun Quotes
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Comment by Brooke
Made Monday, 27 of July , 2009 at 6:58 pm
The choir likes to get preached to from time to time, it keeps them good ‘n‘ riled up. Nice quote.
Comment by rochelle
Made Tuesday, 28 of July , 2009 at 4:23 pm
Oh, how I could have used that quote 18 years ago when I was fighting for research from the originals and not from editions. T’was a fierce battle, took years, but it was finally won. BTW, Charles, did you hear about the PhD diss that was on Thucydides from a translation? (Duh)
Comment by Charles Halton
Made Tuesday, 28 of July , 2009 at 7:44 pm
I had not heard of that diss; pretty crazy.
Comment by Alan Lenzi
Made Saturday, 1 of August , 2009 at 8:06 pm
Editions are primary sources, last I heard. Looking at the tablets is important. But not everyone needs to produce a critical edition in order to say something about a text in the original language. Collation is often desirable. But should one collate everything?
Comment by Charles Halton
Made Saturday, 1 of August , 2009 at 8:13 pm
Yes. Just kidding. I agree with you, Alan. There are many roles to play for many people to play. However, while not everyone needs to produce a critical edition, biblical scholars should be competent reader of original language and I think this is more rare than the guild would like to admit.
