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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53
  • Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 13:11:23 -0500

Dear Rolf,

It is true that several modern translations translate many occurrences of QATAL with future reference with simple future, but in other instances the same translations translate differently. A good example is the passage under discussion, Isaiah 53; but please add 52: 13-15 as well. Many translations (perhaps most) render 52:13,15 with future tense, and this shows that the servant is a future person (or group - not to exclude Jewish thinking). On this basis I wonder why the verses of chapter 53 is not rendered by future tense as well, because it is the same servant that is mentioned in that chapter. Please tell me why? Another example is the one I mentioned, Jeremiah 50,51. True many new translations use future to a great extent in these chapters, but they are far from being consistent. If you look at the WAYYIQTOLs and the QATALs in this two chapters, you can see the inconsistencies.

HH: There is no need to translate all future events with future verbs. Isaiah 52:13-15 looks at two times in the future, the suffering of the Servant and His subsequent glory. To clarify that there is a progression in time, 52:14 puts the suffering in the past. It's past relative to another future action. The same thing is true in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53:1 speaks of a time in the future subsequent to the events narrated in 53:2-12. These events will happen in the future, then the report about them will not be believed. So the report in the more distant future looks back at the less future events. It looks back to them as past. This is not a problem in English but only a way of handling relative time in the future.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





Best regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo




Dear Rolf,

Perhaps you should give us a passage whose translation you don't like, and we can look at it. Many English translations render prophetic perfect verbs with English futures, so I am not sure what you are criticizing.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard

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