Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] English to Hebrew?

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] English to Hebrew?
  • Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 18:04:49 +0200

On 12/3/06, Edward Andrews wrote:

The reason for my question is this; a man was on trial over 50-years ago.
The prosecution was attempting to humiliate him. The man had claimed he
could read and write in several languages, Biblical Hebrew being one of
them. The prosecutor asked the man if he would take Genesis 2:4 in English
and please render it into Biblical Hebrew. The man said he would not
attempt it, for he could not in such a setting. He was cut off from being
allowed to explain why. The prosecution left the lay audience with the
thought: 'and you call yourself a scholar of Biblical languages, a
translator?'

My concern is this; a lay audience does not know that what was being asked
of this man was not the norm. That it is no easy task in that type of
setting to do what he was being asked to do.

But what you asked originally was about translating an English text
into Biblical
Hebrew. Here you are asking to translate an English translation of a known
Biblical verse into Biblical Hebrew. The two are not the same thing
because the
first could be a modern English text that is unrelated to the Bible and was
not
originally translated from it. Furthermore, since that man was a translator
of
the Bible himself, he might be expected to know how he translated specific
passages.

Yitzhak Sapir




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page