To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Aramaic "bar" in Proverbs 31
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 15:20:08 -0500
Shalom Biblical Hebrew,
Hi, though I also have questions about Psalm 2, this question is about
Proverbs 31,
under the assumption that it was written by Soloman, between the first and
second
Temple periods
Proverbs 31 1-3 -KJV
The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.
What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?
Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
Clearly, contextually the verse *shouts* for the usage "son"
However, the following arguments are made that it is still
simply the Hebrew... eg.. "purity"
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before Hezekiah, before the babylonian exile..
so it can't mean 'son' since they didn't use Aramaic then.
There are three places in the writings of the Rabbis that agree to that,
in fact in one of them it explicitly addresses the problem.
Had 'bar' been in use in Hebrew at such an early period it would have appeared
in the prophetic writings, and certainly in those that were written late
like Jeremiah.
There is Biblical proof that Aramaic was NOT even known to the
populous in a period well over a hundred years after Solomon.
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offhand, I don't have the supposed proof alluded to in the last one,
tho I can likely get it..