Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lee R. Martin" <lmartin AT vol.com>]

Dear George,
My first inclination was to think that "a certain man" indicated a parable, 
until I realized that such
a designation seems to have been customary in "non-fictional" narratives, 
e.g. Jdg. 13:2; 1Sa.1:1 and
1Ki. 20:35.  Furthermore, I do not think the translation should be "a certain 
rich man," because the
adj. preceeds the noun, indicating predicate adjective: "one was rich..."
The words "a certain city" might lend an imaginary air to the story, except 
that  there is no BH word
for "same," so the text says "There were two men in the same city; one was 
rich and one was poor."
Cf. Gen.40:5 & 11.

George Athas wrote:

> Hi Lee!
>
> I figured that 2 Sam 14 probably wasn't what you were looking for, but it 
> was the closest that I
> could remember. The reason I think why we know that in 2 Sam 14, the woman 
> is telling a fictitious
> story is because the narrative has Joab telling her to pretend to be in 
> mourning. That, I believe,
> lets the reader in on the secret that she is telling a story, not relating 
> a fact. We don't have
> such a narrative device in Nathan's parable. Nathan just launches into his 
> story without any
> narrative comment. The only clue that Nathan might be telling a parable is 
> the style Nathan uses -
> a 'certain rich man', 'a certain poor man'. However, the fact that it's a 
> parable isn't confirmed
> until Nathan divulges that David is the 'rich man'.
>
> Best regards,
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Dept of Semitic Studies,
> University of Sydney
> - Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Visit the Tel Dan Inscription Website at
> http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~gathas/teldan.htm
> ---------------------------------------------------

--

Lee R. Martin
Pastor, Prospect Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee
Instructor in Hebrew and Old Testament
Church of God Theological Seminary
http://earth.vol.com/~lmartin/