Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Martin Shields <enkidu AT bigpond.net.au>]

Yitzhak,

> Is it possible that the author of Qohelet is here trying to write in  
> Hebrew
> a phrase using a specific word structure that is more natural in an  
> Indo-
> European language, such as Greek (the phrase being something of the
> sort of "without which a man will not find")?

I think this is what the text means (see my other posts), but I don't  
think understanding it this way is necessarily dependent upon Indo- 
European influence. I think it is probably the simplest understanding  
of the Hebrew anyway. OTOH, there's a long tradition of seeing Greek  
influence in Qohelet, and if that's to be seen in any way in this  
verse I suspect it is more likely related to העלם (αιων in the  
LXX which is a term loaded with rather more baggage than עולם in  
biblical Hebrew).

I'm not convinced that there is Greek influence in Qohelet, but I  
wouldn't rule it out as a possibility.

Regards,

Martin Shields,
Sydney, Australia.