[b-hebrew] Ambiguities, doubling meanings and puns

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Sun Sep 11 18:00:07 EDT 2005


Dear Bill,

>I'm curious how your theory handles situations where
>the writer is deliberately creating double-meanings,
>ambiguities, and puns. We discussed one very recently
>about David and Uriah where a list member quoted Sternberg
>to suggested the writer of the text was intentionally
>creating a story where it is possible to understand it
>with Uriah knowing David had gotten his wife pregnant
>and also with Uriah not knowing of David's wrong doing.
>Here the ambiguity is result of good writing not sloppiness.

HH: Really, what would be the utility of creating such confusion? 
Either he knew or he didn't. Scripture does not indicate to me that 
he knew.

>If my memory serves me correctly (I don't have a Hebrew text at
>work) another is Gen 16:2 where Sarah is wanting a son through Hagar,
>yet the text does not explicitly say so. That meaning comes from
>understanding the word play, which I recall as depending on a single
>word. In one sense it means to be built up, but it also means Sarai
>wants a son through Hagar.

HH: Why do you think the text does not say so? It seems perfectly explicit.

>If lexemes only have one meaning how, in your theory, does Hebrew create
>these double meanings, particularly in the case where the double meaning
>depends on a single word?

HH: These don't seem to be good examples for what seems to be a good question.

				Yours,
				Harold Holmyard




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