Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 29/03/2007 01:20, Robert Newman wrote:
> 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.
>
>   
Or else there is an error in the lexicon in Bibleworks. I accept that 
PROSFERW may have this meaning elsewhere in the Bible, and "offer up" 
may also have this meaning although this is not used in this verse in 
NIV. But it clearly does not have this meaning in this verse because we 
all know what actually happened. And in fact it is not the normal 
meaning of the Greek verb either. It is perverse to insist that a word 
found in the Bible, in Greek and in English, must be being used in a 
particular technical sense and then reject that meaning as factually 
incorrect, when there is no problem of fact if the word is taken in its 
regular sense.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/