Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Eric,

In connection with your question and the comments given I would like to
express some viewpoints.

The concept signaled by the word (OLFM (in the minds of the Jews that were
living when the Tanach was written) was neither "eternality" nor "world"
but rather "a time period of undefined length". I am not aware of a single
instance in BH where we gather the meaning "eternal" from (OLFM *alone*.
There is nothing wrong in translating the word as "eternal", "eternity",
but this choice is based on the context, as when it for instance occurs
together with (ad). Standing alone without any qualifying or intensifying
element, the word can in every case in BH be translated as "time
indefinite".

The sense "world" is even more foreign to the Hebrew Bible. In time (OLFM
not only referred to a period of time but also to the *quality* connected
with that period, i.e., particular characteristics connected with the
period. Thus in
Aramaic the word (FLAM could refer both to an order of things ("world"),
and to the people of this order of things. In the Greek NT (OLFM was
translated by AIWN   which also means "time indefinite", but in about 70 %
of its occurrences the sense "eternal" is made visible by the context. In
about 30 % of the occurrences of AIWN the *quality* of the time period is
stressed, and it refers to an age characterized by particular things ("age"
alone deletes the quality). It should not be confused with KOSMOS which
refers to humans, the humans outside the church, and to the circumstances
into which humans are born (there is possibly only one reference to the
"universe" in the NT).

In the Mishna )OLFM often stresses the quality of the time period, as in
the expression HA(OLFM HABBF, which often is translated as "the world to
come". Without having studied the rabbinic material in depth, I think that
"the order of things to come" may be a better translation, though more
"wodden". In the Passover Haggadah the concern is not philological
subtleties, so the translation "King of the world" may be a fine one.


Regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo





>Please forgive my possible mistransliteration; it's usually spelled "melech
>haolam" in popular English transliteration.
>
>I know this isn't a Biblical phrase, but it is in many Jewish liturgical
>prayers dating to Biblical times.
>
>It's usually translated "King of the Universe" but (WOLAM to me has more of
>a time sense than an earth/solar system/galaxies sense (which is how I
>react to the word "universe"). I've checked Brown-Driver-Briggs, Holladay,
>Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, New International Dictionary of
>Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, and Ernest Klein's Etymological
>Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for meaning(s) of (WOLAM.
>
>What would be a better translation?
>
>[I am revising a personally-written Passover Haggadah, and this phrase is
>frequent. At present I have a footnote saying that there is not an English
>equivalent for (WOLAM or the phrase MELEK HA(WOLAM. Am I correct to say
>this?]
>
>Some possibilities that come to me (none of which I really like) are:
>
>King of the Ages
>King of Eternity
>Eternal King
>Sovereign King or Sovereign Lord or Sovereign One
>King of Everything or King of All
>