Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George F Somsel <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Tue, 4 Oct 2005 21:35:09 +0300 "Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>
writes:
> So you suggest to ignore prepositions when convenient? Next, shall we 
> ignore 
> verbs?
> 
> Vadim Cherny
> 
> 
> > >4) "became a living soul" ignores the preposition le, "became for 
> a 
> > >living soul."
> >
> > I'm joining this argument in the middle, but let me point out that 
> the
> > preposition "L" here should not be translated "for."  Rather, the
> > preposition is a consequence of Hebrew grammar.  In a language 
> such as
> > English, in which the grammar does not require a preposition, the 
> word
> > is best left untranslated.
> >
> > It is a common mistake to translate grammatical elements into 
> semantic
> > ones, or vice versa.
> >
> > With wishes for a healthy and happy 5766,
> >
> > -Joel Hoffman
> > http://www.exc.com/JoelHoffman
___________

Vadim,

It is not a case of ignoring prepositions.  It is a case of giving them
their proper significance in context. 

Go learn Hebrew. 

george
gfsomsel
___________