Biblical Hebrew Forum

["T.L. Phillips" <tiphillips AT infoave.net>]

This has been my problem with (English) translations, and also Fox but to a
lesser extent. I would like to see the Tanak presented as the non-English,
non-Western document(s) it/they are. Idioms say a lot of how the writers and
their culture thought. They should be retained as much as possible. That's
why I began working on my own translation again. Won't be perfect, maybe not
"flowing verse" but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Fox still makes
too many accommodations.

Shalom,
Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 9:11 AM
Subject: Translation


>Dear List People
>
>I have a strange question:  Is there a word for "steam" in biblical
>Hebrew?  In Akkadian?
>
>If there is, I wonder if it's a construct form using as one of its
>elements "water" (mym) or "nose" (@p) or "to ascend" [ (lh]?
>
>I was reading the BDB definition of @p---nose, nostril, face,
>anger---and it occurred to me that the meaning "face" places an
>idiomatic English meaning on @p that is not found in Hebrew.  Thus Gen
>19.6, "And Joseph's brothers... bowed low to him, noses to the ground"
>means just that.  "Faces to the ground," the usual translation, express
>the English idiom, not the Hebrew.  By saying that @p also means "face,"
>BDB is extending the range of meaning beyond the Hebrew.
>
>Comments?  Any other places you have noticed this extension?  It would
>seem that Fox's translation should avoid these pitfalls by a rendering
>closer to the Hebrew idiom.
>
>irene
>
>
>
>
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