The Ottawa School of Theology & Spirituality

Transcription

1 The Ottawa School of Theology & Spirituality The Bible: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives September 16 November 25, 2013 Lecturer - David Steinberg steinberg.david0@gmail.com Tel Lecture 11 Biblical Hebrew to Modern English the Cultural and Semantic Gap

2 Imperfect Verbs (normally = future or present) Psalm NJV NEB Jerusalem 21:4 Past Past Past 21:6 Past Present Past 55:13 Present Past Past

3 Precative Perfects? Psalm 4:2 Answer me when I call, O God of my right! Thou hast given me room (הרחבת) when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer. RSV Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer. NRSV When I cry out, answer me, O my righteous God. In my distress bring me relief. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Waltke- O Connor

4 Precative Perfects? Psalm 22:22 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. KJV Save me from the mouth of the lion, my afflicted soul (עניתני) from the horns of the wild oxen! RSV 21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me. NRSV, save me from the horns of the wild oxen Waltke-O Connor

5 Precative Perfects? Psalm 31:5-6 take me out of the net which is hidden for me, for thou art my refuge. Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God. RSV Free me (תוציאני) from the trap that is set for me.nrsv Redeem (פדיתה) me Waltke-O Connor

6 ? = ḥesed חסד Loving kindness? Compassion? Loyalty?

7 Where is Your Heart? Some Body Part Metaphors and Euphemisms in Biblical Hebrew Three current metaphorical uses of the English word heart are: The seat of emotions e.g. heart vs. head; Being in the midst of something e.g. the heart of the sea, getting to the heart of the matter; More rarely, as a metaphor for will e.g. he doesn t have the heart to go on, his heart isn t in it. In Biblical Hebrew, mean: heart can have these meanings and is commonly, is used to לב= The total personality of a person. Most particularly for the inner self - what it means to be human personality/inclination conscience intellect, rational thought (metaphorically the brain in English) memory, emotions, desire, will, determination, courage

8 Heart 2 The Biblical Hebrew equivalent of the English idiom heart and mind, is כּליות ולב i.e. kidneys (= English heart) and heart (= English mind). As an example of a problem raised consider the familiar story about God saying I will harden his (Pharaoh s) heart Perhaps this might mean any of the following: God will rigidify Pharaoh s ability to think logically, weigh up the situation, so he will not be able to deduce that he must let Israel go to avoid disaster; God will strengthen Pharaoh s will and his (misplaced) courage God will strengthen the vicious inclination of Pharaoh s personality with the same result

9 Liver/ bowels/intestines - Seat of emotion Kidneys - Seat of conscience, joy, grief, etc Foot/Skirt (כנף) - euphemism for genitals 1 Sam.:24:4/English 24.3 Lit. Saul went in to cover his feet Saul went in to cover his feet KJV Saul went in to relieve himself. RSV

10 נפש KJV=soul!!!! Throat, neck, breath People Personality Personality Longings Self Tomb; perhaps corpse

11 נפש KJV=soul!!!! 2 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul KJV then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us RSV