Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Hi,

2009/9/30 Petr Tomasek <tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz>

> On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 03:48:51PM +0300, James Christian wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > recently I suggested that Elohim may be used as a proper name in the
> > creation account and not just as a title. I also suggested that THWM in
> the
> > creation account was used as a proper name for the ocean that covered the
> > land at that time. My basis for this suggestion was their use with the
> > absence of the definite article. Obviously, in English, it is easy to
> spot a
> > proper name because we capitalise it and never use it with the definite
> > article (I know, never say never, I'm sure there are some exceptional
> > counter-examples). But is this the case in B-Hebrew. Can we determine
> proper
> > name usage by using the absence of the definite article as an indicator?
>
> No. The language is not an ideal system and there exist many exemptions.
> I think the best example is 1Sam 1:1 MN HRMTYM CPJM...
>
>
I think you are referring to ויהי איש אחד מן הרמתים צופים which is commonly
translates as 'And there was a certain man from Ramathaim-Zophim'. I'm
guessing that you are trying to point out that Ramathaim-Zophim is a proper
name and yet is used with a definite article? While this is an interesting
example may I point out that this is the exact opposite scenario of the
question you was answering? See below:

> Can we determine proper name usage by using the absence of the definite
article as an indicator?

The sense of this question is 'If we see a name which we commonly associate
with a title used without the definite article can we conclude that it is
being used as a proper name?'. If not, then why not? What are the contextual
indicators that this is a title even though it is being used without the
definite article.

James Christian

P.S. I'm pretty sure other languages use definite articles with regions in
some cases. This is the kind of thing generalisations can be extracted from
and reliable linguistic predictions can be made on.