Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Reinhard:

Thanks for your comments concerning the popular, and always controversial,
little phrase עד עולם.

Perhaps the masoretic text ("MT") explains itself. And hence, the need
arises not, to venture beyond it.

Witness:

a. joshua 4:7; the wind and the rain washed away long ago this memorial;

b. joshua 14:9; the land was lost in 587 b.c., again in 70 a.d., and yet
again in 135 a.d., .... for 1800 years now .... and counting; as the house
of al aqsa proudly attests;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque

c. 1 samuel 1:22; shiloh and samuel ceased to exist long ago. ...; although
the former city was recently reincarnated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiloh_(biblical_city)\<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiloh_(biblical_city)/>

d. and on and on throughout the MT.

Whatever עד עולם means .... infinity fits within its boundaries .... not; at
least in the MT usage. And frequently, specific periods of time (beginning,
middle and end) have become known, that were originally described as עד עולם
.

regards,

fred burlingame


On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 3:30 AM, R. Lehmann <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de> wrote:

> For olam, see:
>
> Herbert Niehr, Zur Semantik von nordwestsemitisch ˓lm als 'Unterwelt' und
> 'Grab', in: Ana šadî Labnani lu allik, Festschrift Wiolfgang Röllig,
> Neukirchen 1997, p. 295-305, esp. 295
>
> and what is written on the prepositional construction possibilities of olam
> by Ernst Jenni in THAT II, 1979, 228-243, esp. 229.
>
> Consider also the meaning and function of b-olam in the Ahirom sarcophagus
> inscription:
> Reinhard G. Lehmann, Die Inschrift(en) des A˛ırΩm-Sarkophags und die
> Schachtinschrift des Grabes v in Jbeil (Byblos), Mainz: Zabern 2005
> (Forschungen zur phönizisch-punischen und zyprischen Plastik, hg. von Renate
> Bol, II.1. Dynastensarkophage mit szenischen Reliefs aus Byblos und Zypern
> Teil I.2), p. 27-30.
>
> Reinhard G. Lehmann
>