Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Bob:

This question has a lot to do with understanding Biblical Hebrew, or
better said, discussing how different schools of thought interpret the
data we are presented in Genesis 1 and 2.

On 12/3/06, Bob MacDonald <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca> wrote:
> 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.
Genesis 1 is not a poem. It is prose. The only thing that even looks
poetic is the division into days, which can also be in prose as an
emphatic.

Genesis 2 is presented as history, the personal story of Adam. As such
it is not a parable.

> 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 agree with this, except I don't understand that line about "grasping
at power" and how that fits into this discussion.

> 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.
Go ahead and ask them. But remember that even a fool will be
considered wise if he keeps his mouth shut (Proverbs 17) (which I keep
forgetting).

> Bob
Karl W. Randolph.