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  • From: James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>
  • To: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew as a holy language
  • Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 13:14:21 +0100

Yep. Well spotted.

This would seem to apply two 3 things.

a) the language of the Egyptians and the language of the Hebrews were significantly different to warrant the use of an interpreter and that Joseph's brothers could assume he didn't understand them
b) that Joseph had learned the language of the Egyptians
c) that his brother's probably hadn't yet

However, I'm not sure we can take it for granted that Abraham used an interpretter. He was, after all, a seasoned traveller. Joseph and his brothers, on the other hand, were born and raised in Canaan it would seem.

James Christian



Quoting Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>:

On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 2:18 PM, James Read wrote:
As a venture to start answering them we see that Abraham seems to have
no problem communicating when he goes to Egypt. That seems to suggest
one of the following possibilities to me:

You might want to consider Gen 42:23. The text describes them as
talking and only because of a special circumstance notes that there
was an interpreter. Just because it seems they understood each
other doesn't mean tיhe author meant that they did so. In his view,
they could employ interpreters and it was so obvious to the author
that it need not have been stated.

Yitzhak Sapir
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