Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Definite Article 7:14

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Definite Article 7:14
  • Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:21:00 -0500

Dear Joseph,

If you don't like Gesenius, I will give you the same information from Waltke-O'Connor, Biblical Hebrew Syntax (1990) #15.5.1e, quoting:

The article may also mark nouns definite in the imagination, designating either a particular person or thing necessarily understood to be present or vividly portraying someone or something whose identity is not otherwise indicated . . . . In some cases the proper English rendering is indefinite:

Gen 42:23 _An interpreter_ was between them.

Gen 18:7 He gave (it) to _a servant_.

Gen 14:13 _One who had escaped_ came.

Num 11:27 _A young man_ came.

2 Sam 15:13 _A messenger_ came.

This usage is also found in the expression WYHY HYWM

1 Sam 1:4 _One day_ Elkanah came to sacrifice.

The analogous English constructions should not mislead: all these occurrences, and others like them, are definite in Hebrew.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard
"Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar_ treats the definite article here as special
but as an example of a category of usage (section #126 q-r). They say:
"Peculiar to Hebrew is the employment of the article to denote a single
person or thing (primarily one which is as yet unknown, and therefore
not capable of being defined) as being present in the mind under given
circumstances. In such cases in English the indefinite article is mostly
used."



The go on to speak particularly of this article in Isaiah 7:14: "H(LMH,
i.e., the particular maiden, through whom the prophet's announcement
shall be fulfilled; we should say "a maiden."



For other examples of this class of usage they give, among others, Gen
42:23; 1 Kings 19:9; Job 9:31.



Yours,

Harold Holmyard"
Gesenius is dated, so in my opinion it should generally not be used. The above is an example of why. That the Hebrew word for the definite article would sometimes have a meaning of the indefinite article is a contradiction. Specifically here Gesenius changed his opinion in general regarding the meaning of the Hebrew definite article as well as its
application to 7:14 (that the definite article is indeed intended) in a
subsequent publication.
Joseph




************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page