Biblical Hebrew Forum

["M. Brody" <mbrody AT earthling.net>]

Thank you peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG for your letter 0n 23:14 03/03/99 -0500. You
wrote:
>Dear Menachem,
>Surely the use of periphrastic expressions in place of the name of God 
>was an encouragement towards personification of attributes of God 
>rather than a way to avoid it? Or perhaps rather, as suggested in the 
>original posting in this thread, it was a part of or a precursor of 
>the movements towards personification, some of which were eventually 
>rejected by the Jewish leadership as heretical and forced to go their 
>own way.
>Peter Kirk

Dear Peter,
Let me try again:
Genesis 1:2  "v'RUACH ELOKIM " 
Targum Onkelos: "v'RUCHA MIN KADAM HASHEM"
in order to avoid saying "G-d's Spirit"  [as if His personal attribute]
,but rather "Spirit from before G-d" [to separate the more earthly result
from its Source]

Genesis 1:27 "vYEVRA ELOKIM ET haADAM"
Targum Yerushalmi: "vYEVRA HASHEM bMAMARO ET haADAM"
in order to avoid saying "G-d created the man" [as if He personally created
in a human sense], but rather "G-d created the man by his statement" [again
an intermediary between Source and result].

and similarly hundreds of examples.

Menachem
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>We find frequently in the Targumim translation of the name of G-d as: 
>LIFNAY  [before, in the presence ] of  G-d
>KAVOD [glory, honor] of G-d
>as well as MAMAR [statement, word] of G-d.
>
>All of these additions appear to form a consistent attempt to avoid an 
>impression of HAGSHAMAH [personification ?] by the unsophisticated listner 
>to the original Hebrew Biblical verses, apparently a serious problem in the 
>first century, if we judge from the sects that splintered away from Judaism 
>in this period.
>


Menachem Brody
Machon Helkat Hasadeh
Elon Moreh
mbrody AT earthling.net
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