Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

James:

On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 6:49 AM, James Christian
<jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> …
> > 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


To answer this question, I just did a quick electronic search for מלך MLK
and found many examples where it is used without a definite article yet as a
title, not a name. A common contextual clue is “king of …” with the name of
the place over which he is the king. Often it is preceded by the king’s
name, followed by the title “king of” then the name of the place. We have
the example of Exodus 1:8 and Deuteronomy 17:14–15 where the definite
article does not fit the context. From this example, we see that a title
does not change to a name in the absence of a definite article in Biblical
Hebrew.

The same pattern holds for אדון )DWN where it is used as a title without a
definite article where in English we would, e.g. Psalm 12:5.

Getting back to Genesis 1, I see no reason to assume that אלהים )LHYM used
without a definite article changes from a title to a name.

Karl W. Randolph.