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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] new crackpot idea - Ps.22

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  • From: "Steve Miller" <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net>
  • To: "'kenneth greifer'" <greifer AT hotmail.com>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] new crackpot idea - Ps.22
  • Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:16:42 -0500

Kenneth,
I don't think it works:
1) Feet don't dig simultaneously with hands.
2) One would expect an object for "dug" as is the case with every other use
of the verb.
3) If his hands and feet are currently digging, the verb should be imperfect
or a participle as are the previous (22:16 cleaves) and following (22:18
expounds) verbs done by the speaker.

The idea of him being a worm and not a person is that he is treated
shamefully to the uttermost in contrast to God's treatment of Israel when
they called to God in the previous verses.

I don't think it says that he counts all his bones, even though many
translate it that way. The verb safar in piel never means count. It means
retell or expound. The verb is used 3 times in this psalm, all 3 times
intensive. I think the meaning here is that because He is stretched out
with His hands and feet dug into, without basic clothing as a covering
(v19), and they are all looking at Him, it is as if he were expounding all
His bones to them. They are all looking and staring (v18) at Him as if
listening to a sermon from Him, but He is not saying anything but
"expounding all His bones to them."

The 2 other places where intensive safar is used in Ps 22 are:
v23 where he will expound God's name to his brothers
v31 the conclusion, where David says that his (lxx) seed's service to God
will be expounded or retold for his Lord (only use of Adonai or Adoni in Ps
22) to a generation.

Thanks for bringing up an interesting way to look at the verse. I hadn't
thought of that.

Also, I took your suggestion and added an index to my unusual translations
to my website. Thanks.
http://www.voiceinwilderness.info/my_unusual_translations.htm
You were right, there weren't that many of them, and they aren't that
unusual. I have a lot more in my Bible notes, but I haven't posted them to
my website as of yet.

Sincerely,
-Steve Miller
Detroit
www.voiceInWilderness.info
No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus.
His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. -
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: kenneth greifer
> Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 7:39 AM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [b-hebrew] new crackpot idea - Ps.22
>
>
> I have another alternative explanation of Ps. 22. I don't think it is
right, but it is
> slightly interesting.
>
> In Psalm 22:7, the writer says he is a worm and not a man, and in Ps.22:30
he calls
> people who die "descenders of dust." Ps. 22:16 says "...and You have put
me to the
> dust of death because dogs have surrounded me. Companies of evildoers have
> surrounded me. My hands and my feet dug. I will count all of my bones."
>
> Maybe he is saying that he is like a worm digging into the dust with his
hands and
> feet (which worms don't have) because he is dying and beginning to descend
into
> the dust of death. Then he says he will count his bones which worms also
don't
> have. I guess it does not have to be literal if you don't literally
consider yourself a
> worm.
>
> Instead of saying his hands and feet were dug, they were the ones digging.
>
> Kenneth Greifer






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