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  • From: "Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros AT iol.ie>
  • To: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 9:6
  • Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:43:02 +0100

At 12:31 14/09/2004, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

The accents do favor the separation of "wonder" and "counselor," the way Karl has done, even though most translations seem to join the words together with something like "Wonderful Counselor."

Blenkinsopp, [Joseph, trans. Isaiah 1-39. 19. Anchor Bible, Albright, W.F; Freedman, David Noel. New York: Doubleday, 2000.] chooses the translation " Marvellous Counselor " but footnotes it: >> it is not clear how >pele< ( wonder, miracle ) and >yo'ets< ( counselor) relate syntactically since >pele< is a substantive, not an adjective; the uncertainty is reflected in the versions.<<

Perhaps it was this syntactical puzzle which led the translators of the Jerusalem Bible ( and the translator of the New Jerusalem Bible to follow suit ) to render the four throne names as: "Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace"

BTW, I see that the JPS Tanakh (1985 edition) renders:
>> he has been named "The Mighty God is planning grace ; The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler" <<


The phrase Karl translates as "Father of Time" (Abi-ad) is interestingly one word in the BHS edition of the Hebrew text, though the lexicons I have do not handle it that way. They divide it into )BY ("father") and (D ("time, eternity").

On this, Blenkinsopp writes:
>> >'abi'ad< "Eternal Father", is a rare but not unattested formation ( cf. Hab 3:6 >harere-'ad< "eternal mountains" )


Maurice A. O'Sullivan [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros AT iol.ie






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