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  • From: "Steve Teague" <cosmos AT intergate.com>
  • To: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>, "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Light be made versus Let there be light.
  • Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:31:04 -0500

Thanks, Karl. I have read other explanations, and it is difficult for a lightweight (or no weight at all) to know exactly what the text will support. Hence my interest in this list. But I suspect that in some matters there are multiple views based upon questions about the text (such as those expressed in HALOT for bereshyth) that are difficult to choose between based upon just the text as it is presently understood. Do you see it this way, or do you feel that it is all pretty much cut-and-dried?


----- Original Message ----- From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Light be made versus Let there be light.


James and Steve:
I can see the question as far as how best to render these ideas into
English.

But for the Hebrew, I can’t recognize your questions. Grammatically it is
simple, common Hebrew, other than the subject matter. God commands the light
to come into existence, and it does.

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:17 PM, James Christian
<jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>wrote:


Just to make things clear I am not advocating that Wycliffe's translation
was superior to Tyndale's. Neither am I advocating the reverse. In fact I
am
not advocating anything. The issue is far from resolved in my mind. My
intention was to stimulate discussion to help me resolve the question. The
way I see it is this:

We are clearly attempting to translate a situation which does not occur in
everday life and so is difficult to find corresponding natural language
equivalents of as ideal target language translations.


Yes, this was a one time event, never to be repeated.

I believe that this is your comment Karl. If so, does the text generate this view, does it come from the grammar or the context?


My understanding is
that Tyndale 'invented' the English idiom 'Let there be...' for this very
reason. So the question is this. Was the Hebrew also an example of such
rare
and funny sounding language?


No.


I have reason to believe it wasn't. Did Moses
(or the author) make up a funny sounding Hebrew expression to express this?
Or did he reuse easily understood formulas and forms? I am not certain but
I
think he did. Can anybody suggest any similar formulas or forms from other
parts of the Tanakh? If so, this would seem to suggest implications about
the register of the language used in the creation account.

How about verses 6 and 14 in the same chapter, Genesis 30:34, 33:9, Exodus
10:10, Ruth 2:19, 1 Kings 8:57 and many more? No, grammatically, this is a
common structure.


James Christian

As for translation, how would you render the above verses into English?
Similar to Tyndale?

If this is your response (similar to Tyndale?), Karl, does the question mark signal reservations? If so, I would be very interested in knowing what they are.

Karl W. Randolph.

Steve Teague
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