Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf Furuli" <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no>]

Dear Barry,

I am not sure what you mean by the word "incredible."

There are several problems if we try to use the verbs of the  LXX in order to 
understand the meanings of the Hebrew verbs in the Tanakh. First, the 
translation quality of the books of the LXX is variable. This shows that the 
skills of the translators were different. Second, the translators did not 
have written grammars that made the fine distinctions between the meanings of 
the verbs as we find in modern grammars. Third, if Classical Hebrew is an 
aspectual language, there are fine (aspectual) nuances between the verb 
forms, and it is not easy to grasp these nuances without a long and careful 
study. Fourth, If Hebrew only codes for aspect and not for tense, as I 
believe, something may be lost or added when Hebrew verbs are rendered into 
Greek, where some forms only code for tense, others only code for aspect, and 
others code for both tense and aspect.

I would like to illustrate the situation from my experience with my Akkadian 
classes. To identify the basic forms IPRUS (which wrongly is called 
"preterite," because it is not a tense) and  IPARRAS  (which wrongly is 
called "present," because it is not a tense) is difficult  in some of the 
stems. The students prepared for the lessons looking up the words and  
translating a text, and this required much work. When a student read a line 
or two in class, s/he had to translate this text. Then, when I  asked if a 
particular verb was "present" or "preterite," often the student could not 
answer, because this was difficult and s/he had not considered it. On which 
basis had the student made his or her translation? On the basis of the 
lexical meanings of the words and the context, whether the context showed 
that the action was past present or future. The finer nuances of the action, 
which required more work to find where often ignored. When this so often 
happens in a class where the students are grammatically drilled and are 
encouraged to look for aspectual nuances, how much more in an environment 
where this drill and education is lacking, as probably was the case with the 
Greek translators.

I do not say that some LXX translators did not look for nuances in the Hebrew 
verbs. But my impression is that the task the translators viewed as their 
basic one, was to find whether the action was past, present or future, and 
then convey this into Greek. One reason for all the aorists in the LXX is 
that a great part of the actions in the Tanakh are past, and aorist very 
often is used with past reference, although it can also refer to the future. 
Evidently, there were also some linguistic conventions that the translators 
followed, and therefore we see certain patterns of how Hebrew verb forms are 
rendered into Greek. But to draw any conclusions as to the meaning and 
nuances of the Hebrew conjugations and stems on the basis of the renderings 
of the LXX, is in my view impossible.


Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway


Lørdag 28. September 2013 12:37 CEST skrev Barry <nebarry AT verizon.net>:

> I find this statement rather...incredible. What it tells us is how the 
> translator, involved in both linguistic communities, conceptualized the 
> verbs. In Isaiah 44:24 we have him rendering with both present substantive 
> participles and aorist main verbs. I don't think we can ignore this, and 
> how the ancient translators (especially the LXX and Jerome) rendered these 
> has to inform our own theories with regard to Hebrew verbs. The fact that 
> there is not a "one-to-one correspondence" is in itself an important datum.
>
> N.E. Barry Hofstetter
> Sent from my iPad
> Personal opinions expressed in this email do not reflect any institution 
> with which I may be affiliated
>
> >
> > RF: There is not a one-to-one correspondence between the Hebrew verb 
> > forms of the Tanakh and the Greek verb forms in the LXX. Therefore, in my 
> > opinion,  the use of verbs in the LXX tells us nothing about the meaning 
> > of the verbs in the Hebrew text.