Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bob MacDonald <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca>]

I think my last question was a mite stark since you might read it as having
the implied answer 'nothing'. And that is what I meant. But there is a
defence of the question though the ark needs no special pleading about
literalism. 
 
First, you have to be literate to engage in literalism - and as soon as you
grow into the literate, you realize that from a genre point of view: Genesis
1 is a poem and Genesis 2 is a parable. As such they must be translated as
poem and as parable. Surely they are not required to be contorted with
pluperfect as if G-d needs a defence against our ignorance.

The lesson in Biblical Hebrew is that assumptions imposed on the text by a
culture 2500 years later will not yield a translation that is faithful to
the originator of the text. Whether it is faithful to the culture that
translates it unfaithfully is an issue of how they deal with the bumps on
the road called ignorance and grasping at power rather than those which come
from the interpretive history of the Hebrew language.

I am almost ready to ask some real questions about the psalms - but if
everyone is mad at me at this point maybe I should remain silent for a while
longer.

Bob

Bob MacDonald
Victoria BC
http://gx.ca
http://bmd.gx.ca