Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yonah Mishael" <yonahmishael AT gmail.com>]

Ethel,

Good to hear more from you. As soon as I get a moment, I will respond
to your messages that you sent me. I enjoyed reading everything. Thank
you for your personal insights all around.

As per the phrase אדני האדנים ('lord of lords") in this passage, the
fact is that nothing of the English language existed at the time when
Hebrew was being spoken in ancient Canaan. English developed much
later. So, the existence or non-existence of the word "lord" matters
little, since the same could be said of "chair," "table," and "sky."

The reason that we use "lord" for אדון comes from the feudal system
(que yo sepa) in Europe during the Middle Ages, where the "lord" was
the one who made all of the decisions. In the times of the Tanakh,
אדון refers to one who had control of others. We can say that he was
the "master" of slaves, the "lord" of a household, the "lord" of an
estate or land, etc. In this case, God was being called the "lord" of
other "lords," which means that he was higher than the other so-called
"lords" in the world.

The word "sir" or "Mister" does carry over into Hebrew as אדון, but
this is not the only meaning of אדון. There is nothing wrong with the
translation "lord" or "master" for this Hebrew word. ;)

Yours,
Yonah

On 10/16/06, Ethel Jean (Kowan) Saltz <macnietspingal AT airmail.net> wrote:
> יז  כִּי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם--הוּא אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים, וַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים:
> הָאֵל הַגָּדֹל הַגִּבֹּר, וְהַנּוֹרָא, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יִשָּׂא פָנִים, וְלֹא
> יִקַּח שֹׁחַד.
>
> Question:
>
>  All translations use "Lord" for adonee but I don't think the word "Lord"
> existed
> back then.  It's funny to see it in Spanish "El Senor".  Now maybe in early
> English the word "Lord" was used the same way we say "Sir".  I know in
> Spanish that's what Senor means.  Sir/Mr.
>
> In fact, I looked up Lord in my Webster New World Hebrew/English and it's
> written lamed-vav-resh-daled (Hebrew transliteration of the word Lord:)  I
> looked up Adonee and it's Sir/Mr.  I would translate it "Sir of sirs".  It
> feels so natural to me and imparts such a rich poetic feeling to the
> mysterious label "Y'H'W'H".  "God of gods and Sir of sirs".
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew


--
Yonah Mishael ben Avraham
Joplin, MO
yonahmishael AT gmail.com