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  • From: Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ex3:14
  • Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 15:42:25 -0400



Matanya Ophee wrote:
At 01:27 PM 9/14/2005, Vadim Cherny <VadimCherny AT mail.ru> wrote:

That does not makes sense in English. In other languages, Russian and Modern
Hebrew in particular, it is idiomatic refusal. And this meaning is supported
by similar constructs in Ex33:19.



For a very good reason: modern Hebrew colloquialisms are based directly on Russian, the language used by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and others of my father's generation. One example:

Russian: duraka pol rabota nye pokazivaiut
Hebrew: letipesh lo mar-im khatzi avoda.

There are hundreds of similar constructions, directly borrowed from Russian which you will never find in the Bible.



And so the very perilous activity of translating ancient texts using modern linguistic theory to the exclusion of simple, straightforward translation is illustrated.


--
Jim West

Biblical Studies Resources - http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
Biblical Theology Weblog - http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com




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