Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Thanks, Rolf:

I found it interesting that you mentioned Thorleif Boman's 
work here. That book was very influential to me when I 
was in college:  I had already read Tanakh completely 
through once and was continuing to read it, and the effort 
had caused me to think in what Boman called "Hebrew 
Thought", only I didn't know it. Many times professors 
and other students were excited about how the use of 
alternate terms were so important in a work, i.e. the form of 
the expression, while I couldn't see the excitement as the 
function, the underlying meaning, had remained almost 
unchanged. Boman's book explained to me how I was 
thinking differently from my fellow students and 
professors.

When I started writing noted in the margins of my 
dictionaries, which eventually resulted in my writing a 
complete dictionary, again it was to give a functional 
understanding of the terms. In other words, look at the 
action involved, its form only afterwards. Many times the 
actions suggest a stronger connection to the roots than 
form-based considerations.

As for Boman's and your description of the use of (WLM, it 
is as I recognize the term to be used. Thanks again.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>
> 
> Dear Karl,
> 
> ...
> 
> Literal translation has been criticised because one English word choosen for
> a Hebrew word can have unwanted connotations. The same can be true with
> idiomatic translations as well, and the English word "eternal" is such an
> example, because the modern concept signaled by this word evidently is
> different from the concept of (WLM.  I bring a quote from one who has
> written a dissertation dealing with the view of time in the ancient world: R
> Boman (1970) "Hebrew
> Thought Compared with Greek", pp. 151, 152:
> 
> "The commonest word for boundless time is ´olam; according to the most
> widespread and likeliest explanation the word is derived from ´alam meaning
> "hide; conceal".  In the term ´olam is contained a designation of time
> extending so far that it is lost to our sight and comprehension in darkness
> and invisibility.  It is characteristic of the nature of this term that it
> can be used of hoary antiquity as well as of the unbounded future, thus,
> ´olam is not an endlessly long time but simply a boundless time... Although
> in
> the Old Testament ´olam always means time which is boundless in certain
> respect, nothing is said therein of the objective duration of astronomical
> time; it is always the concern of exegesis to ask in each case how far the
> author´s gaze pursued time."
> 
> A study of the use of (WLM in the Habakkuk commentary confirms Boman´s
> conclusions. We see here that (WLM is parallellized with "to the
> generations" and "length of days," both expressions being unbounded.
> In 5,20 man (one who is born from a woman) is introduced, and the parallel
> of
> (WLM is "to generations" (DWRWT) and in  in V, 24 with "length of days"
> W(WRK  YMYM.  In 9:18 we read about "the number of their "eternal" ((WLM )
> generations," indicating that units constituting (WLM arecountable. In 14:11
> (WLM is applied to generations, in, 9:11 to angels, in 14:31 to gates, in
> 15:9 to foundations, in 16:6 to a planting, in 16:8 to a fountain, and so
> forth.  I will also mention that MWM "blemish; injury" in the War scroll 7:4
> is qualified by (WLM - a injury whose healing takes an undisclosed amount of
> future time.
> 
> A claim that (WLM with future reference can *only* refer to unending time in
> the astronomical sense of the word cannot be proved; because of problem of
> induction, even a reading of all old extant Hebrew texts will not give such
> a proof. And if such a claim is not made, why should the modern word
> "eternal" be used to render (WLM?
> 
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Rolf Furuli
> University of Oslo
> 
> 

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