Biblical Hebrew Forum

["UUC" <unikom AT paco.net>]

Dear Harold,

Your message, as I understand it, amounts to saying that while your
preferred reading relies on very unusual (that is, statistically improbable)
semantics, it is probably better confirms to the preconceived meaning.


Sincerely,

Vadim Cherny


> >With this attitude, how can you disagree with Rolf?
>
> HH: It's not an attitude. It's an awareness of the subtlety of
> meanings that words carry and a need to reflect these accurately in
> translation.
>
> >  He is saying essentially
> the same thing: that there are waw's, which do not reverse the tense.
>
> HH: I'm talking about MiN. He's talking about waw and the imperfect.
> Let's not confuse things. It's not the same issue. Rolf's issue has
> to do with the development of the verb historically and whether what
> we see in the text actually reflects two different verbal
> developments which now exhibit the same form. It is a detailed matter
> involving the use of verbs in Ugaritic and elsewhere, it is found in
> the grammars under treatment of the imperfect verb, and it is not
> closely related to what I am talking about.
>
> HH: What I'm talking about is that prepositions developed numerous
> functions in the Hebrew language. Even if all those functions could
> be attributed to a single lexeme in Hebrew, when a transfer of the
> functions is made into English, a single lexeme does not suffice to
> express them all accurately. You are not a native English speaker,
> but I assume the same would be the case with the Slavic languages.
>
> >At least, you may agree that my translation is statistically more
probable
> >than yours, since it relies on the much more common meaning. And I would
> >agree that your translation better conforms to the Christian doctrine.
>
> HH: It has little or nothing to do with the Christian doctrine.
> Translation of Hebrew prepositions does not proceed on the basis of
> favoring a particular rendering. It proceeds by finding the word that
> best expresses the idea conveyed by the Hebrew word. So if the word
> that does that best is "by," then that is fine. As I have said
> before, the lexicon shows many places where immediate or efficient
> cause is the idea of MiN.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
>
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