Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Harold,

Indeed in Genesis 42:23 HA-MELIC is rendered "an interpreter", but I  
think you will agree with me that this entails the tacit assumption  
that more than one interpreter was available.  Interestingly enough  
it is so also in English: " The president was there and also a senator".

In Genesis 14:13 HA-PALIT is rendered "one that had escaped",  
probably to add an explanation for the unusual word PALIT.

In Numbers 11:27 HA-NAAR is rendered "a young man", possibly to  
indicate the translators belief that it was a random act by some  
random boy.

So in 2 Sam 15:13.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Mar 22, 2007, at 7:21 PM, Harold Holmyard wrote:

> 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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