Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Karl:

So you do agree that Noah's words are meant to be prophetic. That's the only
part in your previous post that I objected to. A I wrote, I'm willing to
accept that LMW can be used in the singular.
However, when I wrote that "the characters of Noah's sons and descendants
are quite obviously representative figures", I meant that this is how they
were intended to be seen by the author(s). And yes, I do think that authors
will use language differently for different types of writing.

Yigal
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53:8


> Yigal:
>
> Let's look at the context as it is written, the interpretation should be a
separate subject.
>
> This "cursing of Canaan" takes place shortly after the flood, most likely
less than a decade afterwards. Canaan, who was born after the flood, was
just a small boy at the time. Noah's words are prophetic, as they refer to
the later life of the individuals involved. As a sub-teen, Canaan could not
fulfill his later role as a slave to his uncles, that would have to come in
the future. Within the context, as written, this is a historical event
involving the individuals named, hence LMW in this context is singular.
>
> Now to the interpretations: is this a myth that is not true intended to
serve as a metaphore to explain later events (e.g. Israel's invasion and
subjugation of Canaan) as many people believe, or is it a record of actual
historical events involving the individuals named, as I believe? Does it
make a difference as far as analysing the linguistic form of the story
itself? I don't think differing interpretations of the meaning of the story
should affect a grammatical and linguistic analysis of the story itself.
What do you say?
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
>
> >
> > Karl,
> >
> > I personally have no well-defined opinion about whether LMW must be
plural,
> > and I'm perfectly willing to accept the idea that even in this case
(Gen.
> > 9:26) it is singular. However, Noah's words are quite obviously
prophetic -
> > he speaks about the future. Moreover, the "characters" of Noah's sons
and
> > descendants are quite obviously representative figures, who reflect what
the
> > biblical authors thought about their "progeny".
> >
> > Yigal
> --
> ___________________________________________________________
> Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com
> http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm
>
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>
>
>