Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

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
>
>
>
>
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