Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Yitzhak:



You said: "But what you asked originally was about translating an English 
text
into Biblical Hebrew.  Here you are asking to translate an English 
translation of a known Biblical verse into Biblical Hebrew.   The two are 
not the same thing
because the first could be a modern English text that is unrelated to the 
Bible and was not originally translated from it.  Furthermore, since that 
man was a translator of the Bible himself, he might be expected to know how 
he translated specific passages."



Your last point is the issue at hand.  Yes, one may have dozens of passages 
that s/he would have little trouble going from English-Hebrew.  Moreover, 
there may be hundreds that s/he very well could do with some difficulty. 
There are passages that carry great theological importance and have been 
argued for centuries.  There are passages where a particular rendering has 
been argued by almost everyone.  There are textual criticism issues and so 
on, which these things as well as many others would cause one to spend a 
tremendous amount of time with a particular passage.



However, I ask a favor of all list members who wish to participate.  Please 
pick up your KJV and turn to Genesis 2:4.  Do your best to render that verse 
as quickly as you can into Biblical Hebrew?  Please keep track of the time, 
and check your rendering against the Hebrew text.  Then, if you would, 
please send the results to me or post them on b-hebrew.  If this is a simple 
task, most of the list members should receive a perfect score.  Also, it 
should be done in a timely fashion as well.  Remember there are no resource 
materials to be used. I do understand that most of are very busy, so if you 
do not have the time for this, I can appreciate that.



Edward Andrews

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] English to Hebrew?


> On 12/3/06, Edward Andrews wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> But what you asked originally was about translating an English text
> into Biblical
> Hebrew.  Here you are asking to translate an English translation of a 
> known
> Biblical verse into Biblical Hebrew.   The two are not the same thing
> because the
> first could be a modern English text that is unrelated to the Bible and 
> was not
> originally translated from it.  Furthermore, since that man was a 
> translator of
> the Bible himself, he might be expected to know how he translated specific
> passages.
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
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