Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Brak <Brak AT neo.rr.com>]

Actually all the "theorizing" has been helpful. After my initial 
question, which was due to me forgetting about the feminine third person 
form, I then proceeded to ask the purpose for the seemingly redundancy. 
I mean we know that "the woman" is speaking - so I was wondering why the 
need to add "she". Why not just have H)#H )MR "The woman said ....", but 
instead the text has "And she said, the woman, .....".
To me it looked a little redundant. So the responses I have gotten have 
been helpful.

Now I wish to expand the question one step further:
If you were translating the word WAT.O)MER by itself, how would one go 
about translating it?
I currently assume there isn't a way to do so.

The reason I ask is in a verse like Gen 3:17 you have L")MOR LO) TO)KAL
Now it is usually translated as "saying, you shall not eat", but 
couldn't also be translated "saying, she shall not eat".



B"H
John Steven

"If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you 
behave."
-Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.


Jason Hare wrote:

> Isaac,
>
> John is obviously struggling with Hebrew grammar if he doesn't know
> that the tav prefix is an agreement with the feminine singular third
> person. Your analyses, as right as you claim they are and others who
> support you, do nothing to help someone actually make the connection
> between form and meaning. Shouldn't we be explaining to him (as some
> are) that the masculine second person singular and feminine third
> person singular have the same form in the imperfect (prefix) forms? I
> don't think he needs to know all of the theorizing that goes on behind
> the scense -- not at this point. He needs a good introduction to
> grammar, and this will come through discovery and deduction, not from
> theorizing beyond the apparent structure. Don't you agree?
>
> Regards,
> Jason Hare
>
> On 5/11/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
>  
>
> > John,
> >
> > You are on the right track. All you need is just organize and
> > systematize your thoughts. I said it before and I will say it again.
> >
> > 1. The Indo-European languages have thoroughly destroyed the
> > structure of their mother tongue. They have bungled their root system
> > and forgot all about their original internal system of personal
> > pronouns.
> >
> > 2. For some reason Hebrew is left in nearly pristine form. It is
> > nearly as ADAM and EVE invented it in their boundless cleverness
> > still fresh from the tree of knowledge.
> >
> > 3. Every word in the Hebrew language is composed of a root and
> > personal pronouns, that's all. Every Hebrew vowel excepting 'A' is a
> > personal pronoun. In nouns the personal pronouns refer to the object,
> > while in verbs (acts) the personal pronouns refer to the actors.
> >
> > 3. The (compound) separate personal pronouns ANI, ANOKYI, ATAH, AT,
> > HU, HI, ANU, ATEM. HEM, HEN, can not be inserted between the radical
> > letters lest they confuse the root.
> >
> > 4. The word TIRCAX is actually two words that have come close
> > together. They are TI-RCAX, where TI is a variant of AT or ATAH
> > standing for the actor-addressee. Since TI is gender indifferent
> > Hebrew adds (H)YI for the female at the and, TI-RCX-YI. So LO TI-RCAX
> > reads exactly as you say it does: "no you kill". For the girls it is:
> > "no you kill she". For the many Hebrew adds (H)U, TI-RCX-U, and so
> > on. When many speak for themselves they say NI-RCAX, where NI is a
> > variant of ANI and ANU. The single speaker contacted ANI to the mere
> > E, E-RCAX, "I kill".
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University
> >
> > On May 10, 2007, at 8:20 PM, Brak wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> > > From my understanding whenever a Taw is added to the beginning of a
> > > verb it adds the word "you".
> > > For example, in the Ten Commandments you have:
> > > LO) T.IR:CFX   which would translate "no you kill"
> > >
> > > Now my question involves the text in Adam and Eve story in Genesis.
> > > In Gen 3:2 you have:
> > > WA/T.O)MER HF/)I$.FH
> > >
> > > Now from my understanding it would be translated as "And you said
> > > the woman"
> > > Now that just seems weird to me. To have "And said the woman" would
> > > make
> > > much more sense, but you don't have the word )FMAR you have T.O)MER
> > >
> > > So what is going on here?
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > B"H
> > > John Steven
> > >
> > > "If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you
> > > behave."
> > > -Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
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