Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>]

Hi Karl, 

Sorry for taking so long to reply. The word "toldot" is derived from YLD, 
which means "to give birth", so I suppose that the most literal translation 
in modern English would be "what was born of", or maybe "the outcomes of", or 
"issues" of ("issue" NOT with the meaning of "subject"). "Issue" or "outcome" 
could be physical - a person's children - or abstract, as in the outcome of a 
certain act or situation. In Modern Hebrew, "toldot" is used for what in 
English is called "history" (which of course has come to have a meaning 
different that the Greek 'Istoria). The department in which I teach is called 
"Jewish History" in English and "Toldot Yisrael" in Hebrew. 

The English word "generation" has the same basic meaning - what is generated 
by something. This "generating" can be physical, such as generating 
offspring, or otherwise. I assume that the KJV translators used what to them 
best fit the ambiguity of the Hebrew word (they did this often). The problem 
is, that in the 400 that have passed, the semantic range of "generation" has 
narrowed, coming to mean (almost) only what in Hebrew is more narrowly called 
"dor" - whether biological or in technology (such a "generation 3.5 
cellphones" - "dor shalosh va-xetsi"). 

As always, translations should never be too rigid, and should always fit the 
context.

Yigal Levin

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org 
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of K Randolph
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 12:11 AM
To: B-Hebrew
Subject: [b-hebrew] TWLDT

Dear All:

In a previous discussion, it was claimed that אולדת TWLDT meant “generations” 
and was so translated by the KJV. But is that right?

In a quick, electronic search, I found that the term is used in fewer than
30 verses, 12 of which are in Numbers 1. None of the verses I found had to be 
translated as “generation”, rather all of them could be translated with the 
idea of bringing forth, presenting.

We could be dealing with the KJV is presently not understood, with 
“generation” having had a different meaning then.

Further complication: the word for “generation” is דור DWR used in more than 
60 verses, with several verses having more than one use of the term.
So there is no need for אולדת TWLDT to be used for “generation”.

So what I see now, there is no reason to translate אולדת TWLDT using the 
modern meaning of “generation”. Not in a single use.

Karl W. Randolph.
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