Biblical Hebrew Forum

[furuli AT online.no]

Dear Cherny and Nikolay,

I read quickly through your work on Isaiah 53 and found many 
interesting points. Just a few comments at this stage: Some time ago 
I gave a lecture on the verbal system of Classical Hebrew for a group 
working with Bible translation, and I used Isaiah 53 as an example. 
In my Norwegian translation almost all verbs have future tense. So I 
would like to ask. Why should we in a prophetic text referring to the 
future use simple past and perfect, or even present?  Are there any 
lexical, grammatical, or syntactical data that would prevent a 
translator from consistently using future tense in prophecies 
referring to the future?

Best regards

Rolf Furuli


> Gentlemen:
>
> Recently, we finished almost a year-long project on literal translation of
> the chapter 53, a prophetic cornerstone of Christianity. This work brought
> about a translation considerably different from any we are aware of, and
> also produced an unusual meaning.
>
> The article submissions to about two dozen journals were rejected without
> a single meaningful objection. Nor did any of the reviewers pinpoint flaws
> in our argument. "Impossible" was the most common answer. However, as we
> see it, this is what Isaiah meant.
>
> We would be glad to post the article (since it is about 80k in size, we
> are awaiting for your approval), or you may read it at
>
> http://www.anarcho.net/on_religion/Ieshayahu%2053.htm
>
> We would appreciate your review of this article, and certainly your
> comments are important to us.
>
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> Vadim Cherny,
> Nikolay Bondarchuk
> _______________________________________________