Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dear Yigal:

On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 3:19 AM, Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il> wrote:

> Hi Karl,
>
> Sorry for taking so long to reply. The word "toldot" is derived from YLD,
> which means "to give birth",


That is what I say is a wrong understanding of the term YLD, rather it has
a broader meaning, one of which is to produce children i.e. give birth. I
don’t have a list of verses where the verb YLD is used in bringing forth,
producing other than children, but I have noticed several uses for other
than giving birth over the years. (This is one of those cases because I was
reading for myself, I didn’t see the need to document exact verses, but
now, when questioned, wish I had written down those uses as I read the
text.)


> 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").
>

I wouldn’t be surprised if you are correct that the English language has
changed, making what was originally the correct understanding of the term
to what is now an incorrect understanding.

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

Agreed.

>
> Yigal Levin
>

Karl W. Randolph.