Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

See comments below.

Peter Kirk

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 4:14 PM
Subject: Re: The 24 hour "evening and mornings" ??? (Peter)


<snip>
> >
> >PK: Yes, of course! "All the days of x's life" is a standard formula for
> >"the whole of x's life", with no focus on the individual days.
>
> Your modern understanding doesn't change the literal significance of the
> phrase.
>
PK: No, of course not. The phrase always meant "the whole of x's life" and
always will mean that. Literalism is simply error, and in a case like this
the error can be easily demonstrated from many parallels. If you order a hot
dog, do you complain that what you get is not a warmed-up canine? Of course
not, because "hot dog" does not mean what your literalism would take it to
mean. By exactly the same argument, KOL YEMEY XAYYEYKA in Gen 3:17 does not
mean "every day of your life", it means "the whole of your life".