Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Robert Newman" <rob AT designceramics.co.uk>]

Hello Peter,
I think what Rolf has observed and what you may not have considered is that 
'offer up' as a biblical idiom in the context of sacrifice seems to refer to 
the whole process of making a sacrifice, not just the bringing of the gift to 
the place of sacrifice and presenting it there but the complete presentation 
to God. Looking at PROSFERW in the lexicons on Bibleworks I notice one cites 
Heb 11:17 and there gives "to offer up, i.e. immolate, one". The translators 
of NIV evidently understood this because they have "about to sacrifice" where 
the Greek uses PROSFERW. If in the context of sacrafice 'offer' does refer to 
the whole process, including the immolation (sacraficial slaughter) of the 
victim, Isaac was not 'offered' because he was not sacrificed. So either the 
word PROSFERW signals something different in 17a to 17b, or there is a 
contradiction, or the contrasting verb forms signal something different about 
the action in 17a to 17b.

Regards
Robert Newman

On 28/03/2007 22:13, Rolf Furuli wrote:
> ... One example of this is 
> Hebrews 11:17, where the force of the perfect is difficult. When the NIV 
> render the perfect "offered," this is factually wrong and contradicts its 
> rendering "was about to sacrifice". ...

No, Rolf, NIV is not factually wrong. Neither the English word "offer" 
nor the Greek word PROSFERW used in both cases here implies that the 
offering was accepted and the sacrifice completed. As you should 
certainly know, "offer" can mean "To present for acceptance or rejection 
... To exhibit readiness or desire (to do something)" (selection of 
definitions from http://www.answers.com/offer&r=67). Abraham offered or 
presented Isaac and expressed his readiness to sacrifice him, but God 
did not allow him to complete the action. So NIV is factually correct, 
although "to sacrifice" is an unwarranted addition and "was about to 
sacrifice" is a poor rendering. As for Greek PROSFERW, here are the 
definitions from Louw and Nida: "(a) ... to carry or bring something 
into the presence of someone, usually implying a transfer of something 
to that person - to carry to, to bring (to). ... (b) ... to bring or 
lead into the presence of someone - to lead before, to bring into the 
presence of, to bring to. ... (c) ... to present something to someone, 
often involving actual physical transport of the object in question - to 
bring to, to present to. ..." So there is no suggestion in the Greek 
either that the action of PROSFERW was incomplete. The lexical meaning 
of the verb seems to imply a recipient, and in this case the implied 
recipient must be God.

Now I don't know what the distinction between perfect and imperfect is 
in this verse, but I don't think your claim that the action was 
incomplete is helpful in that respect. Here is my rather too literal 
rendering of the verse, with the additions which I would make for 
clarity in [...]:

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, brought (PERFECT) Isaac to [God]. 
He who received the promises was bringing (IMPERFECT) to [God] his one 
and only son.

It was of course part of the assumed background knowledge for this story 
that God's acceptance of this offering meant Isaac's death, and so that 
Abraham was offering to sacrifice Isaac. The NIV rendering, while not 
very literal, accurately portrays the actual scenario as the original 
readers would have understood it.