Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>]

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

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Biblical Theology Weblog -  http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com