Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Robert Newman" <rob AT designceramics.co.uk>]

Hi Kelton, Harold, Solomon, Rolf and Peter,
Seeing as the focus of this thread seems to be what the expression "time/s 
indefinite" communicates to the English reader and whether it correcly 
communicates 'olam', I give the perspective of one who grew up using 
primarily the NWT. I feel my understanding of the expression was shaped at 
least partly by scriptural context. (one does't have to be a trained linguist 
to recognize the role of context - it's a universal tool for communication). 
I took the expression to roughly equal 'forever' although the possibility is 
left open in NWT that in some contexts the time period may have an end. In 
the physical world the further something is away the more unclear it becomes, 
so I took 'time indefinite' as a natural way of expressing a long, 
never-ending or else undefined time period.  I never thought 'oh that could 
be five minutes'. Actually my English thesaurus gives these alternatives to 
the word "indefinately" "ad infinitum, continually, endlessly, for ever, sine 
die". 
If 'time indifinite' on the other hand is misunderstood as too vauge by an 
occasional/onetime reader, it's not by the student who has learnt from 
context the biblical meaning. This is a bit of a disadvantage of the more 
literal translation, but the advantage is that any possibility (as there 
evidently was in the minds of the translator's) that the Hebrew/Aramaic may 
refer to a time period that will/could end, is left open to the student and 
not decided for him/her. 
The English translation "time indefinite" might not be perfect, but for a 
translation, designed for study, that’s as concordant as practically possible 
and striving to communicate like the source language does, it works.

Robert Newman
Essex, England.

Harold wrote:
HH: I don't want to get into a long debate over this, but you seem to 
be looking at the matter from the following perspective: "If I begin 
with the concept of 'eternity,' then 'indefinite time' can be a way 
to describe it." That may be so, but when a reader comes to a text, 
he does not come to the concept of "eternity." He only comes to the 
text. If he reads that such-and-such will last for "an indefinite 
time," that does not spark in the mind the concept of "eternity." The 
phrase is too vague and could mean five minutes. This is why 
translation cannot use a single term for many words, since words have 
more than one signification.