Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Edward Andrews" <edandrews AT adelphia.net>]

Steve:



I would like to thank you and the others for your thoughts, all of them are 
much appreciated.  I have noticed it is only of recent times 30-50 years 
[fifty probably being to long], that, both Biblical Hebrew and Greek have 
focused on the idea of going both ways in their grammars.  Even Mansoor 
expresses that this is not the norm, but he chooses to take this approach. 
There are two small principles I have gathered in the beginning of my 
studies: 1) be concerned with maintaining a limited vocabulary of most often 
occurring words and focus your energy on the grammar and; 2) This is not a 
language which you will be using in interchange of conversation, thus going 
from the RL into the SL is not the primary concern.  However, as you pointed 
out Steve, there are times when that will be the case.  Focusing on English, 
it would be far more difficult for the English mind to read a paragraph and 
then simply write it out how it would appear in Biblical Hebrew with no 
tools.  However, it would not be as difficult, in fact, much easier for the 
scholar of Biblical Hebrew to take a verse in Biblical Hebrew and render it 
into English.



The reason for my question is this; a man was on trial over 50-years ago. 
The prosecution was attempting to humiliate him.  The man had claimed he 
could read and write in several languages, Biblical Hebrew being one of 
them.  The prosecutor asked the man if he would take Genesis 2:4 in English 
and please render it into Biblical Hebrew.  The man said he would not 
attempt it, for he could not in such a setting. He was cut off from being 
allowed to explain why. The prosecution left the lay audience with the 
thought: 'and you call yourself a scholar of Biblical languages, a 
translator?'



My concern is this; a lay audience does not know that what was being asked 
of this man was not the norm.  That it is no easy task in that type of 
setting to do what he was being asked to do.  The lay audience is still 
being hit with this same slight of hand in that many persons who attack this 
man and the translation he worked on. These critics say that during the 
trial this man was asked to translate Genesis 2:4 and he could not.  As you 
can see, they leave out the fact; it was from English into Biblical Hebrew. 
Moreover, most Christians would have no idea just how difficult it is to go 
from the TL to the SL.  Thus, I wanted to pose the question as plain as I 
could, to see what I already knew to be true.  Again, I thank everyone for 
their responses.



Edward Andrews

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Miller" <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net>
To: "'Edward Andrews'" <edandrews AT roadrunner.com>; "'b-hebrew'" 
<b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 9:21 PM
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] English to Hebrew?


> > From: Edward Andrews Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 11:23 AM
> >
> > I have noticed that most grammars I have used, work from Hebrew to
> > English, not English to Hebrew.  However, Menahem Mansoor goes both ways.
> > Would the members of b-hebrew agree that, in general, most Hebrew 
> > scholars
> > do not speak Biblical Hebrew or are able to take an English paragraph and
> > translate it into Hebrew (at least not very easily)?
> [Steve Miller]
> I think it is important to be able to translate in both directions in 
> order
> to interpret the Hebrew Bible. In digesting the Bible, we should be like
> cows, chewing the cud, chewing, regurgitating, rechewing, questioning, and
> considering. Not like a pig, just chewing and swallowing.
>
> When I am testing an interpretation of a verse, I like to ask the 
> question:
> If I was writing the Tanach and that interpretation was what I wanted to
> say, how would I say it in b-hebrew? Then I look at the differences 
> between
> how I would have said it, and how God actually did say it in the Bible. 
> This
> may show a fallacy in the interpretation, or it may shed new light.
>
> Another reason for translating back into b-hebrew is in comparing a NT 
> quote
> or the LXX translation of a verse with the MT.
>
> -Steve Miller
> Detroit
> www.voiceinwilderness.info