Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 3:5 - and ye shall be as gods
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 23:05:43 -0500
Dear Steven,
I will say this: if the construction were exactly
like Dan says, one would expect the following
punctuation in the KJV text:
Gen. 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods knowing good and evil.
HH: The KJV did not punctuate it that way but put
in a comma after "gods." The comma makes "knowing"
appear to refer back to "you will be." Look at the
examples the NET translator of Genesis gave, and
you will see that an attributive participle
functions as an adjective closely modifying the
word it goes with. It is "broken vessel," "oak
whose leaf fadeth," "chased roe," "wandering
bird," "chaff that passeth away," "watered
garden," "man astonied," "burning fire," "drunken
man," "a woman in her pangs," "silly dove,"
"firebrand plucked out of the burning."
HH: There is never a comma between the noun and
its attributive adjective. When you insert a
comma, that makes the participle separate from the
preceding noun and go back to the main verb, it
seem to me. An attributive participle is one like:
"the laughing boy," "a crying girl." It functions
as an adjective modifying the noun it goes with.
But when you insert a comma after 'God," in Gen
3:5, it suggest that the participle is functioning
predicatively, going back to "you will be."
HH: Below are the verses that the NET Bible gives
in comparison with the construction in Gen 3:5.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
Psa. 31:12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of
mind: I am like a broken vessel.
Is. 1:30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf
fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
Is. 13:14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and
as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every
man turn to his own people, and flee every one
into his own land.
Is. 16:2 For it shall be, that, as a wandering
bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of
Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
Is. 29:5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers
shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the
terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away:
yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Is. 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee
continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and
make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose
waters fail not.
Jer. 14:9 Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied,
as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O
LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by
thy name; leave us not.
Jer. 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of
him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word
was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my
bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I
could not stay.
Jer. 23:9 Mine heart within me is broken because
of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a
drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath
overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the
words of his holiness.
Jer. 31:12 Therefore they shall come and sing in
the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the
goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and
for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the
herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden;
and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
Jer. 48:41 Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds
are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab
at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in
her pangs.
Jer. 49:22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the
eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at
that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom
be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Hos. 7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove
without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to
Assyria.
Amos 4:11 I have overthrown some of you, as God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a
firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye
not returned unto me, saith the LORD.