Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Jack:

As a lexicographer, I am troubled by the translation of 
R( as "evil". It may be that my understanding of the 
English term "evil" is defective.

I understand "evil" as a close synomyn to "wicked", 
always including a theological or moral aspect. An 
avelanch that kills a mountain climber cannot be "evil" 
as it has no moral concept. Similarly, a man-eating 
animal simply acts out its instincts, it does not have 
moral will, therefore it too cannot be evil. An example 
of this is Genesis 37. From these and other uses of R( I 
conclude that "evil" is not its root meaning, rather it 
refers to displeasure, often extreme displeasure as in 
trouble, pain, grief, even disaster.

However, R( is often caused by people who are moral agents. 
In those cases a translator may use the word "evil" because 
the moral aspect is not out of place. In those contexts, 
the translator needs to be careful because he is adding a 
moral concept to a term that in Hebrew does not carry the 
moral force even while allowing it.

                                                                              
                                                                              
                                                                              
                                                        A final objection is 
philosopphical/theological. If God 
is morally good, he cannot create or cause evil. To do so, 
that would make him the devil. He can allow, even cause, 
bad things to happen, displeasures to the extreme, as 
correction, punishment, but that is not moral evil. He 
allowed the disaster of Nebucadnezzar to come with the 
exile, but in that he was merely consistant with his 
promises to Moses, that he would bring on military 
disaster, even exile with persecutions as punishment for 
the people if they refused to follow his commands. And 
after the exile, we find that the nation never again 
openly worshipped the idols of the nations. He will also 
allow temptations, as ways of testing giving opportunities 
for growth, tempering that temptation so that it is not 
beyond our capacity, yet we in our perversity often choose 
to fail. Again, that is not moral evil on the part of God.

For the reasons given above, I, as a lexicographer, cannot 
render R(, the verb R((, the adjective R(/R(H, and other 
terms from the same root as pertaining to "evil". 
Displeasures, disasters even, but not moral evil.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: tladatsi AT charter.net

> 
> In regards to the Bible connecting evil and God, there are
> more than a few such references beyond Isaiah.  Deuteronomy
> 30:15 says * See, I have set before thee this day life (ha-
> khayim) and good (ha-tob), and death (ha-mevet) and evil
> (ha-ra)* .   In Judges 9:23 God sends an *evil spirit *
> (rukh raah) between Sechem and Abimelek as punishment for
> the crimes of Jerub-Baals sons.  Four times in 1 Samuel 16
> Saul is afflicted by an *evil sprit from God * (rukh-Elohim
> raah). In Neh 13:18 it says *? and did not our God bring
> all this evil (ha-raah) upon us ?*.  Job asks his wife
> rhetorically?*What? shall we receive good at the hand of
> God, and shall we not [also] receive  evil  (ha-raa)*?
> 
> Jack Tladatsi

-- 
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