[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

The debate on the preservation of God's words in Psalm 12 became sharper in modern times with the Doug Kutilek article (1983) mentioned upthread which aggressively attacked the "preservation of words of God" position.

We saw above that Kutilek was very deceptive on the significant interpretation of Rashi (post #119). And he misrepresented Patrick Symon and apparently had no idea who Symon actually was, missing his life and writings by two centuries ! (#142). And we briefly discussed the history of the discussions back and forth (#147) between Kutilek, Moorman, Lackey and others. Shortly we hope to place a "Top Resources - both sides" list in one post, with short reviews, showing the modern history of the debate.

Returning to the Doug Kutilek article, there are a total of about 10 factual errors in his own hand-picked resource list. Rather an astounding number for a short, published Journal article. Granted, most are minor, yet at least three are major. Generally the dates and names are garbled. Even 20+ years after first publication. This does not say much for the heart of Doug Kutilek towards actually trying to understand these commentaries and seek the depth of the writings and lives of these men. Nor for his AQ (Accuracy Quotient). These errors are on top of the usually abbreviated references. (Often lacking publication name, page numbers, etc.)

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NEW KUTILEK ERRATA

(in addition to Rashi misrepresentation and Symon misrepresentation and wrong century)

WRONG CENTURY

"George Horne" - dates were 1730 -1792 - not 19th century
"(Alexander) Maclaren" - Psalm publication is 19th century, not 20th
"(Thomas Kelley) Cheyne" - Psalm publication is 19th century, not 20th

SPELLING CORRECTIONS OF NAMES

"Joseph Excell in Biblical Illustrator"...Joseph Samuel Exell
"Arno Gabelein"................................Arno Clemens Gaebelein - Annotated Bible
"W. O. E. Oesterly" ..........................William Oscar Emil Oesterley
"W. Randolf Thompson" ............................. W. Ralph Thompson

STRANGE

"George Murphy" (?)
James Gracey Murphy - A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalm (1875) - if this is meant, the name is very wrong, if there is a George Murphy, who is it ?

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ADDITIONAL NOTES

"W. E. Barnes" - William Emery Barnes

"C. B. Moll in Lange’s" - this is only a quote from Perowne without comment.
http://books.google.com/books?id=l4U...J&pg=RA1-PA107
A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures - Johann Peter Lange

Cohen is likely Abraham Cohen, the Soncino Press edition of Psalms.

It is a bit surprising that Mitchell Dahood is included, considering that he is the originator of many absurd cognate theories.

G. C. Morgan (1947) .. we showed above this is actually earlier (1906)

Two others, "F. B Meyer" and "J. M. Neale and F. R. Littledale" will receive individual study.

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The Doug Kutilek list is far from complete (upthread I mention many commentaries and translations that he neglected) however it was generally a decent referencing .. other than 3 huge problems (Rashi and Symon above are two) and the bumbling on the most basic facts. It is definitely true that the majority of the interpreters work with "poor and needy" or some "persons" interp, at least for Psalm 12:7b, less so for Psalm 12:7a.

It is also true that "Counting scholarly noses does not constitute proof". (Kutilek). I would take that one step further. Counting noses, on any widely split interpretation, by itself is barely a minor evidence.

Remember, this list was chosen by Doug Kutilek, so you would think he would get the names and dates right ! (Doug Kutilek is notorious for harumphing at others on small issues, assuming his own projections.) Most, not all, of these above are qualitatively small errors. We show all these errors to help the scholarship along. And they indicate that Kutilek's apparent familiarity with these sources is a chimera, he simply tried to quickly extract from them for a one-dimensional and oft-distorted presentation. And his level of academic expertise and accuracy in submitting this to a journal and then to the public with a plethora of errors was grossly deficient.

We can see this example where Doug Kutillek, who does not see God's word today as pure and perfect, not surprisingly had a low standard for his own words.

Psalm 119:140
Thy word is very pure:
therefore thy servant loveth it.

Shalom,
Steven Avery