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b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] b-Hebrew Digest, Vol. 58, issue 18

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] b-Hebrew Digest, Vol. 58, issue 18
  • Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:27:59 EDT


Yigal Levin:
You wrote: "In the Bible, or at least most of it, everyone speaks good
Hebrew. So do the Egyptians in Genesis…."
That is completely untrue as to the Patriarchal narratives. When Joseph's
brothers come to Egypt to buy food, they have to speak to Egyptians using a
translator. Joseph himself, having lived in Egypt for quite a few years at
that
point, has learned to speak Egyptian and is acting as Pharaoh's vizier.
"And Reuben answered them [Reuben's brothers other than Joseph], saying:
'Spoke I not unto you, saying: Do not sin against the child [Joseph]; and
ye
would not hear? therefore also, behold, his blood is required.' And they
knew not that Joseph understood them; for the interpreter was between them."

Genesis 42: 22-23
Note that this scene works only if the author is very well aware that
Egyptians could not understand Hebrew. When Egyptians (excluding Joseph)
speak to
Hebrews in the Patriarchal narratives, it is by means of a translator.
Everything in the Patriarchal narratives makes perfect sense, in the secular
historical context.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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  • [b-hebrew] b-Hebrew Digest, Vol. 58, issue 18, JimStinehart, 10/22/2007

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