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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 3:5 - and ye shall be as gods
  • Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 23:05:43 -0500

Dear Steven,

I will say this: if the construction were exactly like Dan says, one would expect the following punctuation in the KJV text:

Gen. 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.

HH: The KJV did not punctuate it that way but put in a comma after "gods." The comma makes "knowing" appear to refer back to "you will be." Look at the examples the NET translator of Genesis gave, and you will see that an attributive participle functions as an adjective closely modifying the word it goes with. It is "broken vessel," "oak whose leaf fadeth," "chased roe," "wandering bird," "chaff that passeth away," "watered garden," "man astonied," "burning fire," "drunken man," "a woman in her pangs," "silly dove," "firebrand plucked out of the burning."

HH: There is never a comma between the noun and its attributive adjective. When you insert a comma, that makes the participle separate from the preceding noun and go back to the main verb, it seem to me. An attributive participle is one like: "the laughing boy," "a crying girl." It functions as an adjective modifying the noun it goes with. But when you insert a comma after 'God," in Gen 3:5, it suggest that the participle is functioning predicatively, going back to "you will be."

HH: Below are the verses that the NET Bible gives in comparison with the construction in Gen 3:5.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard



Psa. 31:12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
Is. 1:30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
Is. 13:14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.
Is. 16:2 For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
Is. 29:5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Is. 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Jer. 14:9 Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
Jer. 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
Jer. 23:9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.
Jer. 31:12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
Jer. 48:41 Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Jer. 49:22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Hos. 7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Amos 4:11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.





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