[b-hebrew] Genesis 41: 1: "Two Years of Days"
Rolf Furuli
furuli at online.no
Tue Jul 14 01:50:00 EDT 2009
Dear Jim,
You are right that I have followed the
traditional interpretation in my translation of
the expression in question. I have read your
arguments, and I am not convinced that you are
right. But we should not be too quick to exclude
alternative interpretations. I have never made an
in-depth study of the issue, so I do not have the
right background to evaluate it. But thank you
for bringing the issue to our attention.
Best regards,
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
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>Genesis 41: 1: "Two Years of Days"
>
>Although not related to Rolf Furuli's discussion
>of Hebrew verbs, I would nevertheless like to
>challenge Rolf's traditional interpretation of
>"And it happened at the end of two years of
>days" at Genesis 41: 1 as meaning "At the end of
>two full years".
>
>The only other expression of time like this,
>using "days"/YMYM, is at Genesis 29: 14, where
>Jacob works for Laban "a month of days" before
>becoming engaged to statuesque Rachel. To
>translate that as "a full month" would not make
>sense. Those days speed by for Jacob, who is
>enamored of beautiful Rachel. The word
>days/YMYM is not being used to emphasize that,
>subjectively, the time period seemed extremely
>long. Very few English translations of Genesis
>29: 14 say "a whole month" or "a full month",
>because such a construction does not make sense
>in that context. So why assume that "two years
>of days" at Genesis 41: 1 means "two full
>years"? It doesn't.
>
>In both cases, this is the first instance where
>a period of years is being referenced in a
>particular foreign land, with the first case
>being northwest Mesopotamia (Harran), and the
>second case being Egypt. The Hebrew expression
>"days"/YMYM is a verbal alert that the 7 years
>that Jacob will soon promise to work for Laban
>in Harran (Genesis 29: 17-18) are 7 Mesopotamian
>years, that is, 7 regular, 12-month years. Note
>that the preceding reference to a period of
>years (excluding people's ages) was Genesis 16:
>3: "So Sarai, Abram's wife, took her maid,
>Hagar the Egyptian -- after Abram had dwelt in
>the land of [or, "at this piece of ground in"]
>Canaan ten years -- and gave her to her husband
>Abram as concubine." Genesis 16: 3 Those were
>ten years in Canaan, which had a New Year
>celebration both in the spring and in the fall,
>based on the equally important harvest of grain
>and harvest of fruits. But the 7 years that
>Jacob promises to work for Laban are
>Mesopotamian years, where northwest Mesopotamia
>had only one New Year every 12 months, in the
>spring, based on the all-important harvest of
>grains. Equally importantly, the preceding
>reference to a person's age was at Genesis 26:
>34, which tells us that Esau married, unwisely,
>two Hittite women at age 40 "years". Esau had
>lived in Canaan his whole life to that point, so
>those "years" are logically referring to the
>fact that Esau had witnessed 40 New Years in
>Canaan: 20 spring New Years and 20 fall New
>Years. Esau did not wait until being well into
>middle age (in the ancient world) at age 40
>regular, 12-month years to make those unwise
>marriages. (In the ancient world, many men died
>at about age 40 regular years, as life
>expectancies were much shorter than today.) No,
>Esau was a young man, age 20 regular, 12-month
>years, when Esau impetuously made those unwise
>marriages to Hittite women.
>
>Likewise, the reference to a period of two years
>concerning Pharaoh's dream at Genesis 41: 1
>comes not long after we are told at Genesis 37:
>2: "At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended
>the flocks with his brothers, as a helper
>["lad"/nar/N(R] to the sons of his father's
>wives Bilhah and Zilpah." If Jacob's favorite
>son Joseph were a grown man, age 17 regular,
>12-month years, there's no way that Joseph would
>be a mere helper to his older half-brothers by
>Jacob's minor wives, and there's no way that the
>narrator would refer to beloved Joseph as a
>grown man as "nar". Rather, Genesis 37: 2 is
>telling us that Joseph to that point had
>witnessed 17 New Years in Canaan: 9 spring New
>Years and 8 fall New Years. Joseph is age 812
>regular, 12-month years. That is why Joseph is,
>very realistically, a mere helper to his older
>half-brothers by his father's minor wives at
>that point, and why Joseph is very appropriately
>described by the narrator as being a "nar".
>
>The reason for the expression "two years of
>days" at Genesis 41: 1 is to clue us into the
>fact that the narrator here is referring to two
>Egyptian years. Egypt had only one New Year
>every 12 months, based on the annual flooding of
>the Nile River in early summer.
>
>In comparing Genesis 29: 14 with Genesis 41: 1,
>please note the following additional key factor.
> In both cases, the Hebrew man as to whom that
>peculiar phrase relates then soon talks to the
>lead person in that locale (of Harran or Egypt),
>not using a translator, and refers to a period
>of 7 years (Genesis 29: 18; 41: 26). (As a
>descendant of Abraham's father, Laban would be
>able to speak to Jacob in Jacob's native
>language (pre-Hebrew or Hebrew), even if most of
>the locals at Harran ordinarily spoke Hurrian or
>Aramaic, etc. So no translator is needed. In
>Egypt, Joseph has learned to speak flawless
>Egyptian, so no translator is needed when Joseph
>speaks to Pharaoh.) In those situations, Jacob
>and Joseph would be using the word "years" in
>the sense that "years" were understood in
>northwest Mesopotamia and Egypt: 12 month
>years, since those foreign locales had, so
>unlike Canaan, only one New Year every 12 months.
>
>Thus at Genesis 41: 1, the reference to "two
>years of days" is not an assertion that this
>amount of time was very long. It does not mean
>"two full years". No way. Rather, the
>reference to "two years of days" at Genesis 41:
>1 means that we are dealing with Egyptian years,
>that is, regular, 12-month years.
>
>Jim Stinehart
>Evanston, Illinois
>
>
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