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  • From: Ted Walther <ted AT reactor-core.org>
  • To: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Los Lunas and the ninth commandment
  • Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:05:41 -0700

On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 12:32:03PM -0700, K Randolph wrote:
Since we are in North America, we thought it would be neat to base our
doorposts on the Los Lunas inscription, the North American version of
the ten commandments. Based on Karl's translation, I have a few more
questions before deciding that it is suitable for this style of
mezuzah. I'll post them later.

Here are the questions. They concern the ninth commandment.

Karl, I notice in your translation of the Los Lunas decalogue, it reads:

* Don't answer concerning your neighbor falseness.

Lately, Jeff Benner posted a translation of the Masoretic that looks
like this:

* LA TONE BROK OD SQR
* You will not testify in your friend a testimony of deception.

I noticed that the prefix "B" can mean in or with. So I put this on my
own mezuzah:

* You will not testify with your friend a testimony of deception.

Then we have the traditional translation:

* You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

So, the question is, which is the best translation?

From Karl's translation I get the same meaning as in the traditional
translation, to wit, don't tell lies about your neighbor. With the Jeff
Benner translation, I got the impression that you are not supposed to
tell lies TO your friend. And when I traded "in" for "with" in my
mezuzah, I got an anti-conspiracy law, "Don't collude with your neighbor
to give false testimony".

Although untraditional, is there any merit to the latter two
understandings of the ninth commandment?

Ted

The key:

A aleph
B bet
G gimmel
D dalet
E hey
U vav
Z zayin
H het
Y teth
I yod
K kaf
L lamed
M men
N nun
C samekh
O oyin
P pe
X tsade
Q quf
R resh
S shin
T tav

X is for tsade because ts is similar to ks.
Y is for teth, because it once carried the "th" sound in English.
C is for samekh, because it once carried the s (also sh and ch) sounds.

--
There's a party in your skull. And you're invited!

Name: Ted Walther
Phone: 604-435-5787
Email: ted AT enumera.com
Skype: tederific
Address: 3422 Euclid Ave basement, Vancouver, BC V5R4G4 (Canada)




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