Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Year 13 Hebrew Grammar

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Year 13 Hebrew Grammar
  • Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:27:13 +0300

This is actually an interesting point. Literally, Kenneth and Karl are
correct: they served 12 years, they rebelled 13 years, on the 14 year
Chedorlaomer arrived. Some (not all) of the rabbinic sources actually
understand it that way, and Seder-Olam Rabbah (the post-Talmudic tract that
calculates the chronology of the world, from which the Jewish calendar gets
5771 A.M. for the present year) actually counts this as 26 years. However
logically, the sequence 12-13-14 seems more poetic than chronological, and
logically it would make sense that they served 12 years, rebelled on the
13th, and he arrived on the 14th. Most of the translations that I have seen
understand it that way, including such as the JPS and Alter. The Medieval
Jewish commentators, like the Talmudic rabbis, are divided. Rashi, while not
commenting on "13 year", says of "14 year" - "of their rebellion", seeming to
agree with Seder Olam. Most of the others understand 13 as meaning "in the
13th year". Ibn-Ezra makes the following comment: "The meaning of 13 is in
the 13th, like six days the Lord created (Ex. 20:11), and the author of Sedor
Olam combined them, and his knowledge is wider than ours."

To me it seems, that which grammatically 13 may be correct, the context calls
for 13th. The form can be explained in terms of literary form and genre. As
we (that includes you, Karl) always say, context is everything.

Yigal Levin






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page