Biblical Hebrew Forum

["VALEDICTION" <info AT valediction.com>]

> Do you mean he was connecting meanings of individual letters to meanings
of
> words, or was he dealing with roots (three-consonant combinations with
meaning
> that relates to the meaning of words)? If it's the former, I'd be
interested
> to know what some of his examples were, but it is something different from
> what we've been discussing.

Well, as I recall, he was dealing with both the meaning of the individual
letters as well as certain letter combinations... by the way, I found the
link I was looking for...

"Hebrew:  The Letters Tell a Tale" by Rabbi Yehuda Silver...
http://wwwc.catalog.com/cgibin/storemaker?id=172171202175452163615&action=pa
ge&page=spirituality/default.html

Here's the example/teaser they have posted on the order screen:
"Hebrew was once considered a 'dead' language. It was revived by the
pioneers that resettled Israel. In fact, the letters themselves represent
the reality we live in better than any other language. The Hebrew word for
dog is kelev. 'Ke' = like the; 'lev' = heart, and presto 'man's best
friend.' Discovering the makeup of Hebrew letters uncovers the meaning
within the word."

I also have a book on this subject, which I have not yet read, but it is in
my library...

"The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet" by Rabbi Michael L. Munk

By the way, I think this book is still in print from ArtScroll, though mine
is an old used version.

Joe Glean --junior member--
>From ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk  Fri Jan 24 20:07:20 2003
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On Fri 24 Jan 2003 (16:53:35 +0100), rdehoop AT keyaccess.nl wrote:
> The Septuagint has in Genesis 4:24 an identical wording as in Mat.
> 18:22, namely literally seventy-times seven. Yet this is the Greek way
> of saying `seventyseven times'; cf. Blass/Debrunner, Grammatik des
> neutestamentlichen Griechisch, p. 199. So the rendering is not to
> harmonize with Gen. 4:24; but the word in Mat. 18:22 itself is a
> contrast to Gen. 4:24 using exactly the same numbers.
>

 Not wanting to dissent from Blass & Debrunner: but I wonder if the point
 is something different. We are used to our multiplication tables on the
 Decimal base, and we can evaluate 70x7 instantly. But if you wish to
 multiply LXX times VII (Latin numerals) or OMICRON times ZETA (Greek
 numerals) or Dalet times `ayin (Hebrew numerals), it is not done so easily in
 the head or on the back of an old papyrus or ostracon. It's as if Jesus is
 saying "Forgive your brother times without number".

 Lamech's example in Genesis 4:24 is the source of the Greek phrase: but I
 wonder if Matthew 18:22 owes something to Amos 1 and 2, where punishment is
 decreed against Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah and Israel 
"for
 three transgressions and for four". That may be where Peter got his "seven
 times" from. As for Lamech: he was a nasty character.

 Just a suggestion

 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick BA CF, and Mrs Joanna (Goodwin) Crick
 <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm