Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>]

> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra:  Thomas L. Thompson 
> Sendt:        21. august 2000 17:38
> Til:  'Dave Washburn'
> Emne: SV: Gen 2:17: Dying thou shalt die
> 
> Jubilees might help in this. The story in Genesis ends with Adam living on
> and becoming the father of children outside the garden. Jubilees addresses
> itself to the implications of Yahweh's words, that Adam will die on the
> day he eats of the tree. The author finds a solution to the seeming
> incoherence of 'you will surely die' by pointing out that in Yahweh's eyes
> a thousand years is but a day. In God's eyes Adam does not live out that
> fateful day.
> Thomas 
> 
>       -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
>       Fra:    Dave Washburn [SMTP:dwashbur AT nyx.net]
>       Sendt:  21. august 2000 05:32
>       Til:    Biblical Hebrew
>       Emne:   Re: Gen 2:17: Dying thou shalt die
> 
>       Bill,
>       > <Bill>
>       > The literal of Gen 2:17 seems to be:
>       > 
>       > ...dying thou shalt die...
>       > 
>       > which is generally translated "thou shalt surely die"
>       > 
>       > * is this a fairly certain translation? could it be taken
> unidiomatically?
> 
>       I'm not sure what you mean by "unidiomatically" since it's a 
>       common Hebrew idiom; "going you shall go," "dying you shall die," 
>       "loving you shall love" etc.  It's a Hebrew way of emphasizing the 
>       sureness of something: "this will most definitely happen" or "you 
>       will most certainly do this."  We see a similar construction in 
>       Jonah 1 where the sailors "feared a great fear."  As my first-year 
>       Hebrew teacher said so many many years ago, "feared a fear" is 
>       emphatic enough, but when you add "great" it probably means 
>       some of them had to go change their underwear.  Using cognate 
>       forms like this was a "normal" (whatever that word means) way that 
>       Hebrew strengthened the force of something like "die."
> 
>       > * does the construct appear elsewhere in Scripture?
> 
>       All over the place.
> 
>       > * does anyone respectable champion another reading?
> 
>       Not that I am aware of.  No one unrespectable that I've seen either 
>       ;-)
> 
> 
>       Dave Washburn
>       http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
>       "Éist le glór Dé."
> 
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