Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 12/4/06, Edward Andrews wrote:

> 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.

The issue at hand is a person who claims to be highly skilled in Hebrew.
Being highly skilled in Hebrew is not a requirement of this list.   None of
the claims you are making relating to difficult to translate passages or
textually problematic passages have bearing on how one, given how that
problematic passage was eventually translated would render it back into
the known Hebrew original.  Supposedly, the more difficult the passage
is, the more familiar would the scholar be with the passage and hence the
easier it would be for him to "translate" it because he would be familiar
with the wording ahead of time.

If you want to see if this person is highly skilled, in order to evaluate the
translation he produced, then you can't use the translation (or you could
evaluate it irrespective of his skill), and you have only the hard facts at
your side: what did he study?  what other scholarship in Hebrew linguistics
did he produce?   how did he respond when asked to translate a passage
from English into Hebrew?  Suppose he would have gotten all but one word
right, would that have impressed the jury positively or negatively?

You cannot, however, now take the last point and draw it out to a "b-hebrew
contest".  It is also how the response to the lawyer is made during
cross examination.  Is it "I would not attempt to do that" or "Hebrew is a
dead language and there is no one alive who can truly translate back.  I
have spent some time with this passage, however, and so I can probably
work out most words from memory."  No one here on the list can be placed
in this person's shoes in such a "trial."  However, when we wish to evaluate
the scholarship of this individual, not taking his translation into account, 
we
have only the facts of the matter: what he studied formally? what other
scholarship besides the translation did he produce? and whether a different
response would be expected of a hebrew scholar when approached by
such a lawyer.

An interesting point is that prior to being asked to translate Gen 2:4, he
was asked if he could translate into Hebrew.  His response was not that
it is impossible to translate into Hebrew but to ask which passage was
asked of him to be translated.  The fact that he answered in such a way
must also be taken into account.

Here is a discussion of the issue, that quotes people who have posted
some years ago on the list, and also brings in a comment by a Hebrew
scholar, Prof. Alan Millard:

http://www.forananswer.org/Top_JW/FranzNWT.htm
(This site is biased in that it promotes a different view of Christianity than
that promoted by Jehovah's Witnesses.  However, I doubt any unbiased
comment can be made on this issue.  Besides, let the arguments stand
on their own, just as the NWT translation is expected to stand on its own).

Yitzhak Sapir