Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 18/02/2005 18:16, C. Stirling Bartholomew wrote:

> ...
>
>
> It is one thing to suggest the dubious "for six days" as a rendering of
> $$t-ymyM, it is another thing to proceed to cosmological speculation on the
> basis of that dubious rendering. It was this second move that I was
> objecting to. 
>
> The is a standard pulpit technique. You call into question a standard
> English translation. You suggest a dubious alternative. Then you construct
> an even more dubious exegetical and hermeneutical edifice on the dubious
> translation alternative. This is all vapor (fog). Only the first move has
> anything to do with Hebrew and the first move as C admits isn't a sound one.
> So why proceed to the second move?
>
>  
Clay, you misunderstand me. I was certainly not indulging in 
cosmological speculation. And it was not me who called into question the 
standard English translation. Although this is in fact proper scholarly 
technique - there are plenty of theological edifices built on 
questionable English and other translations which need to be reexamined.

In fact I was examining in a bit more detail C's dubious hypothesis that 
the phrase means "for six days" rather than "in six days", i.e. that the 
end of the six day period does not imply the completion of the creation 
process. What could this mean? That the creation was left unfinished? 
Unlikely. That God repeatedly (any number of times from 2 upward, in 
principle even to billions) worked six days on, one day off? Well, I can 
imagine Israelites having that concept, with the number of times 
unknown. But it does conflict with Genesis 1. So no one can say that I 
am trying to reconcile the Bible with any cosmology, only to point out 
that this one passage just might be less definite on the issue than it 
appears to be at first sight and from English translations. On the other 
hand, I agree with C that the traditional understanding is more likely.

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



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