Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin Riley" <klriley AT alphalink.com.au>]

My knowledge in this area is probably incomplete, but all of the Hebrew NT's
I have heard of/seen have been translations from Greek to Modern Hebrew. 
Someone on the list should be able to indicate whether this is good Modern
Hebrew.

Kevin Riley
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Peter Kirk
 
On 24/04/2005 21:36, Michael wrote:
 
> My syntax is a little rusty. I have been reading through my Hebrew New
> Testament and I believe the version I am reading of John 1:1 has an
> example of both a classifying clause and an identifying clause. But I
> am not sure what the difference in meaning between the two is.
> The passage in question reads:
> W:HU) HADFBFR HAYFH )"CEL HF):ELOHIYM, W")ELOHIYM HFYFH HU) HADFBFR
>
What translation of the NT is this? It doesn't look to me like good
biblical Hebrew - but of course this might not have been the
translator's intention. For it appears that HU) is being used before the
noun as some kind of demonstrative adjective, or as an additional
article; whereas in biblical Hebrew HU) as a demonstrative adjective
always follows the noun and almost always takes the article itself (see
BDB sv HU) 7).
 
But I notice that this translation corresponds word for word, in the
same order, with the original Greek here, if HU) is taken as a rendering
of the Greek article hO. So perhaps this is simply an over-literal
translation of the Greek. If so, if you want to understand the phrase
you should look at the Greek - or at one of the many good English
translations of the Greek.
 
--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)