<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->There is a very clear 'protestant-catholic' struggle amongst the early Indologists (Orientalists as they called themselves).Â
There were two clear camps of Indologists of 18th century. First - Portugese and Dutch, later joined by Germans, insisted that Bible is historically right to the last single word of it; that Hebrew is the original language of all humans;<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Bodhi,
Do we have to bring the christian struggle into the debate? We can ignore them
if we can help it.
The language debate in Europe is very important and Hebrew losing its dominance is a critical event in the creation of AIT.
Since they could not decide clearly on the langauage origin this theory has been proposed and is still being debated.
What would the Jewish intellectuals do if they found that during that period that this debate would undermine their hold on the language and their hold on the destiny of the european people.
They would go about by creating an alternative theory which they could still control worldwide with scholarship and research for several decades and even many centuries.
There were two clear camps of Indologists of 18th century. First - Portugese and Dutch, later joined by Germans, insisted that Bible is historically right to the last single word of it; that Hebrew is the original language of all humans;<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Bodhi,
Do we have to bring the christian struggle into the debate? We can ignore them
if we can help it.
The language debate in Europe is very important and Hebrew losing its dominance is a critical event in the creation of AIT.
Since they could not decide clearly on the langauage origin this theory has been proposed and is still being debated.
What would the Jewish intellectuals do if they found that during that period that this debate would undermine their hold on the language and their hold on the destiny of the european people.
They would go about by creating an alternative theory which they could still control worldwide with scholarship and research for several decades and even many centuries.