Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Tory Thorpe wrote:
> The JPS is not the _only_ Jewish translation into English that renders
> "huxal" at Gen. 4:26 as "began". Sorry, if I gave that impression by
> citing the Stone Chumash. I do not think, however, mainline translation
> is an accurate way to describe the JPS, certainly not in the orthodox
> community. R. Simon, in Midrash Rabbah, does not translate the passage;
> he attempts explain it because "huxal" is ambiguous at this point.
HH: We have only one Hophal in the Bible, but the Hiphal of this stem 
with the lamed infinitive means "begin." Adam was about 235 years old 
when Enosh was born, but the context of Gen 4:26 really gives little 
reason to think that some big corruption occurred then. It may be that 
by the time Enosh was born there were enough people to have real worship 
services. The NET Bible says about the phrasing in 4:26:

Heb “call in the name.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord 
through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 12:8; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25). See G. 
J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116.

One possible variant is recorded in BHS. Some Greek texts have "this one 
hoped to call." "Hoped" involves a repointing of the verb in question. 
The Vulgate has: "That one began to call." The reference would be to 
Enosh. The pronoun "this" or "that" would involve some confusion with 
)Z. BDB notes that sometimes the feminine pronoun Z) ("this") is 
reversed in semitic inscriptions, a fact that might be relevant to the 
ancient variants.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard