Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Yes, Mike, please heed Yigal's advice. Your questions seem to come from an assumption that you can assign a single English word to a single Hebrew word in a kind of one-for-one trade. Forgive me if my assumption there is incorrect, but that's the impression I'm getting from your questions. This is often the approach taken by people armed mainly with Strong's concordance, and as much as I admire such keenness, it usually makes people dangerous rather than helpful. It's not really doing the job of translation (going from the logic of one system into the logic of another) or semantics (considering how lexemes dispense meaning).

It is far better to consider words in a given context, since context shapes function and meaning. I'm glad you're putting the list to good use, but with your types of questions, you need to give a context to derive some really useful information. Then, also, we can all benefit from the discussion and insights offered.

GEORGE ATHAS

Dean of Research,

Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)

Sydney, Australia