To: "Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>
Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] qedem
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 13:26:31 +0100
On 23/07/2004 09:13, Jonathan D. Safren wrote:
To the ancient Israelite, the past was "qedem", meaning that he could see
it, it was something he already knew, and therefore it was "in front of,
before" him.. Cf. the similar use of the English "before". ...
It is interesting that in English "before" usually refers to the past
when used in a temporal sense, but it can also refer to the future, as
"ahead" normally does, in expressions like "You life lies before you" in
advice to a young person. Is there a similar ambiguity in Hebrew?
--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/