Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Leonard Jayawardena <leonardj AT live.com>]

Karl W. Randolph wrote:

 

Quote

 

A possible translation is, “and upon as the presentation (brandishing) the detestable things from the one who is destroying and until the completion that what is determined is poured out upon destruction.” Bad English. Difficult passage to understand.

 

Any reason why my reading is wrong? I’d like to hear it.

 

Unquote

 

LJ: With respect, I think that your translation is not only bad English, but also nonsensical .

 

I would translate

 

ועל כנף שקוצים משמם

 

as  "and upon the edge (or top) of abominations is/will be one causing desolation."  I understand the "abominations" to be a reference to Roman imago standards, at the top of which an emperor's image was depicted (pictures are available on the web). For "edge" as a sense of  כנף , see Job 37:3; 38:13. The historical context in which this prophecy was fulfilled is the Jewish war period beginning in AD 66.  The "one causing the desolation" of both the temple and the city of Jerusalem was the emperor. (The specific emperors under whom the Roman war against the Jews was prosecuted was first Nero and then Vespasian. It is not a problem to my exegesis if the image of the emperor appearing on Roman imago standards at the time of the war was that of neither, for it is the institution of the Roman emperor that is in view.) 

 

According to Daniel 9:27, the daily sacrifice in the temple was to be cease "in the midst of the week" followed by the setting up of "abominations," i.e., the imago standards  (presumably on the altar of burnt offering, following the precedent of Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 B.C., who set up an idolatrous altar on top of the altar of burnt offering, which the writer of Maccabees calls TO BDELUGMA THS ERHMWSEWS [1 Maccabees 1:54; cf. Daniel 8:13; 11:31]), which is somewhat cryptically expressed as "and upon the edge (or top) of abominations is/will be one causing desolation." The setting up of the abomination of desolation following the cessation of the daily sacrifice is  clearly predicted in Daniel 12:11 and fulfilled in AD 70. 

 

The synoptic gospels, I think, confirm this interpretation. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus said, "But when you see the abomination of desolation [Gr. TO BDELUGMA THS ERHMWSEWS] spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing [hESTOS] in the holy place--let the reader understand--then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and the one upon the housetop..." (Matthew 24:15). Mark has the masculine participle hESTHKOTA instead of Matthew's neuter hESTOS. This is constructio ad sensum  and suggests that Mark, or whoever was responsible for the second gospel,  thought of  TO BDELUGMA as a representation of a god or a deified man.  Luke's parallel to Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 is "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation [Gr. ERHMWSIS] is near" (Luke 21:20). The reference is clearly to a physical desolation, or devastation, of Jerusalem, which was to be caused by the משמם of Daniel 9:27c, who was the Roman emperor, upon whom "the end that is decreed is poured out"--כלה ונחרצה תתך על-שמם [Daniel 9:27)-- in the end. This judgement is spiritual in nature.  The TO BDELUGMA in Matthew and Mark is not the Roman armies per se but the imago standards they carried. I understand Mt. 24:15; Mk. 13:14 and Luke 21:20 as being fulfilled in the siege of Jerusalem by Cestius in AD 66.

 

"Edge" or "top" is my preferred sense  for   כנף  but the meaning "wing," the most frequent sense of this word, may also be possible here because of the possible resemblance of the top of a Roman imago standard to the form of a bird with outstretched wings.

 

Leonard Jayawardena

 

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Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 00:00:55 -0700
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The Meaning of W:(AL K:NAP in Daniel 9:27c
From: kwrandolph AT gmail.com
To: leonardj AT live.com
CC: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Leonard:

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 8:40 PM, Leonard Jayawardena <leonardj AT live.com> wrote:

Karl W. Randolph wrote:

 

Quote

 

Is כנף one word, or is it a prefixed כ on a participle of נוף which has the meaning of “to present, as in setting before, brandishing, waving”?

 

Unquote

 

So with your reconstruction, how would you translate W:(AL K:NAP $IQ.WCIYM  M:$OM"M ?

 

Leonard Jayawardena

I had to go back and look up the Hebrew to see what is your transliteration, why didn’t you just write the Hebrew characters?

A possible translation is, “and upon as the presentation (brandishing) the detestable things from the one who is destroying and until the completion that what is determined is poured out upon destruction.” Bad English. Difficult passage to understand.

Any reason why my reading is wrong? I’d like to hear it.

Is there an idiom that I might have missed?

Karl W. Randolph.