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  • From: "Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>
  • To: "Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>, 'Dave Washburn' <dwashbur AT nyx.net>, "'b-Hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu'" <b-Hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: SV: Gen 2:17: Dying thou shalt die
  • Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 17:42:59 +0200




> -----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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