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b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] NP$ as a noun?

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  • From: "Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] NP$ as a noun?
  • Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:19:05 -0300

karl,

טוב מראה עינים מהלך־נפשׁ גם־זה הבל ורעות רוח

1. i think you should include with your questions an explanation
why you reject the usual interpretations, which remains an enigma
for most of us. i personally see nothing wrong with them here, that
would require a total grammatical reshuffle of the clause.

2. the formula TOV (noun1) M-(noun2) is the usual comparative in
hebrew, especially late BH and talmudic. in my opinion it fits
perfectly the available timing evidence for a late qohelet.
also note that HLK occurs here as a noun in smixut.

3. also GM-ZH in versicle b indicates reference to a noun, not a verb.
but, oddly, it refers to a SINGLE noun, though TWO are mentioned.
perhaps this was the background for your rejection in item 1. but
this is solved if e.g. you put versicle a in quotation marks!
as to versicle a, i suggest two possible readings:

"eye evidence (objective) is better than mental cogitation (subjective)"

but this would perhaps put it in the 17th century AD! or:

"one should prefer the senses to being absorbed with thoughts":

this sounds more suitable to an early post-exilic book. but the important
element in both is the quotation mark around them. thus, ZH refers not to any
of the two nouns, but to versicle a as a unit.

nir cohen






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