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  • From: furuli AT online.no
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu
  • Subject: R: Rephaim
  • Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 12:26:29 +0100


Dear Fred,

Whether the noun is connected with RP) = "to heal" or RPH ="to become feeble", "to sink down" cannot be known with certainty. The Ugaritic evidence regarding the meaning of RP)Y is uncertain, and the Hebrew word need not signify more than "the one who has sunk down in death". To interpret Hebrew words in the light of Ugaritic is possible, but never conclusive (cf. all the criticism M. Dahood got from his extensive use of Ugaritic in his Psalm Commentary, The Anchor Bible). The most balanced treatment of the word of which I know, is Harris, R. L. et al (1980) "Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament" II:858. There is no place in the OT which definitely show that dead persons are "alive" after death, and the idea that the dead exist as "shadows" is simply fictional "the shadow-idea once occurred in the mind of someone, and afterwards it has been uncritically repeated". Even for Ugaritic I am not aware of any hard evidence showing that the word "shadow" should be used as a designation for the dead; absolutely not in Hebrew, and not in Accadian (the *opinion* of Gordon or anybody else cannot be used as evidence).

Another example of how mythology is introduced in Bible translations, is the word )I++IM in Isaiah 19.3. This is a hapax, and it is quite dramatic that the translators of the Norwegian Version of 1978/85 have introduced a new doctrine on the basis of a word occurring once and having an obscure meaning. It is translated by as "de dodes ander" ("the spirits of the dead", NIV and others have done the same). In this case Accadian is used to interpret the Hebrew word, because Accadian has the word ETEMMU, which can refer to the spirit of a dead person. We cannot take for granted that the religion of the Hebrews were similar to the one of the Babylonians, and we note that ETEMMU also has the meaning "enchanter". The parallel words of Isaiah 19:3 suggests that enchanter is the reference here.


Best regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


I just wonder if anybody could help me out with some insight on the
"rephaim". Are we to think of them as "giants" (as in LXX), as "the weak
ones", "the shades" or the "departed spirits"? Are there any clues to get
from the study of the Hebrew language, or is the word totally out there in
the mist? What would you say is the best translation of the word?
In advance - thank you!

Greetings from Fred, Norway
(new to the list - looking forward to some interesting conversations!)

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  • R: Rephaim, Ian Hutchesson, 12/18/2002
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • R: Rephaim, furuli, 12/19/2002

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