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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Participant Reference

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "C. Stirling Bartholomew" <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
  • Cc: hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Participant Reference
  • Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2004 15:21:50 +0100

On 05/08/2004 05:48, C. Stirling Bartholomew wrote:

... I was
looking for some sort of formal mechanism in Hebrew which would function
like the Greek article to indicate that this person is already on stage.
Perhaps there is no such formal mechanism in Hebrew. Perhaps there is some
other means of accomplishing the same function.


Well, my suggestion is that the use of a simple name, with no title, father's name, place of origin etc signals this.

Since you mentioned Abraham, let's see if this applied to the minor characters in the Abraham story from Genesis:

Kedorlaomer king of Elam (14:1,9) > Kedorlaomer (14:4,5,17)
Egyptian maidservant Hagar (16:1,3) > Hagar (16:4,6,7,8,15,16) > Hagar the Egyptian (21:9) > Hagar (21:14,17)
Abimelech king of Gerar (20:2) > Abimelech (20:3,4,8,9,10,14,15,17,18, 21:22,25,26,27,29,32)
Ephron son of Zohar (23:8) > Ephron the Hittite (23:10) > Ephron (23:13,14,16,17)
Rebekah... daughter of Bethuel... (24:15) > Rebekah (24:29,30,45,58,59,60,61,63,67)
A brother named Laban (24:29) > Laban (24:50)

This suggests that what I said is the general pattern, although not necessarily perfectly followed.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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