Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Peter,

The issues you raise here are predominantly questions of historical 
construction with two different sources. It's not really a linguistic issue 
pertaining to the Hebrew. The Hebrew is quite straightforward, indicating the 
laying of foundations for the Jerusalem temple. The historical problem is 
determining when this occurred, and that is not straightforward.

Since historical discussions are not really permitted in this forum, apart 
from clarifying linguistic issues, I will only give a brief thumb-sketch of 
the issues, but will not invite any further exploration. For that, I'd refer 
you to relevant secondary literature.

Ezra portrays a foundation laying before the time of Darius, but Haggai 
portrays a foundation laying during the time of Darius. These can either be 
harmonised by concluding there were two foundation laying ceremonies, or else 
seen as independent sources, each with a different opinion on when exactly 
the foundation was laid.

There are many more historiographical issues involved in these 
considerations, but B-Hebrew is not the place to explore them. We need to 
confine our discussion to the Hebrew.


GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia


From: <ps2866 AT bingo-ev.de<mailto:ps2866 AT bingo-ev.de>>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:33:14 +0200
To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Haggai 2,8 + Ezra 3,10

Dear Friends of B-Heb,

by comparing Haggai and Ezra I found a problem that I can't solve on my own:

In Haggai 2,18 it states: "from the day that the foundation of the LORD'S
temple was laid" (NKJ)

In Ezra 3,10 we read: "When the builders laid the foundation of the temple
of the LORD" (NKJ)

In both instances the writer uses the verb JaSaD. What is the difference
between both occurences, as a foundation can't be laid twice, I guess, and
there are some years between both passages.

Is it better to understand the verb as "beginning to build" rather than
laying the foundation?

Thank you again for all help !
Yours
Peter M. Streitenberger, Germany