Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Robert,

> 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".

HH: What you're saying is true about "indefinitely," but it's not 
true about "indefinite." Here is Roget's Thesaurus on "indefinite:

Main Entry:     indefinite
Part of Speech:         adjective
Definition:     ambiguous
Synonyms:  	broad, confused, doubtful, dubious, equivocal, 
evasive, general, ill-defined, imprecise, indeterminable, 
indeterminate, indistinct, inexact, inexhaustible, infinite, 
innumerable, intangible, loose, obscure, shadowy, uncertain, unclear, 
undefined, undependable, undetermined, unfixed, unknown, unlimited, 
unsettled, unspecific, unsure, vague, wide

A couple of these glosses might give a meaning like "eternal," but most don't.

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard