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The Judeo-Christian approach to ancient Jewish ideograms is based on the ecclesiological nature and character of the coming of the Messiah, that is, the Saviour of the world. This coming of the divine Messiah was witnessed through multifaceted perceptions of the biblical text. The Jewish ideograms to which the ancient Bible corpus was written represent the oldest and most authentic memory of man's divine origin, that is, of an indigenous kinship. Hence, in both the Old and New Testaments, God is called God the Father, just as people are called gods. This Higher Kinship is also strengthened or shaped, unless someone finds it a difficult word, in a literary form, giving through their elects the appropriate literary symbolic paradigms of the true way of being in both the Old and New Testaments of the Kingdom of Heaven. The divine actions of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit have their clearly recognizable horizons in the properly divinely befitting Jewish ideograms. The study of the Hebrew biblical text should be taken most seriously, so that we do not remain confined to the visible words of the scripture, such as the sensory knowledge of earthly things, without seeing the Heavens hiding behind the appearing side of its ideographic forms. The importance of the biblical text for the awareness of the ecclesiological nature of not only the biblical text but of the created world in general is immeasurable.

A page listing all resources on The LINGUIST List website which are relevant to this language or language family.

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/56085, This paper presents an overview of all units of measurement in both the Old and New Testaments. And, as a help for translators, it specifically provides the modern equivalent for each measure. Special attention is also given to the differences between the short and the long cubit, as well as a discussion about the sizes of the ephah and the bath. In addition, this paper argues that the acknowledged differences between pre- and postexilic units of measurement should be taken into consideration in any translation, even if precise definitions may not be possible. Furthermore, it proposes that measures of capacity should be rendered as certain measures of weight, if this is more acceptable in the host culture. Lastly, while the usage of metric equivalents is seen as fitting in certain situations, this approach may also raise unique problems, and these are addressed. Some of these problems include dealing with symbolic numbers and verses which, in the original text, explain one measurement term by using another, and thus function as a kind of footnote. Other issues of translation are also touched upon as well; however, what is not included is a discussion of those discrepancies that seem to exist between some passages of I & II Chronicles on the one side, and their parallel texts in I & II Kings on the other.

A page from the online edition of Ethnologue: Languages of the World (17th edition) giving basic information about the language (including population, location, status, alternate names, dialects, and classification) with notes on language use and language development.

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/56034

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/43554, Principles from Relevance Theory are used to distinguish the function of the Ancient Hebrew limiters 'ak and raq. Raq always constrains a countering interpretation on the material that it introduces. In other words, its presence indicates that an existing assumption is to be countered or eliminated. In contrast, the constraint on interpretation imposed by 'ak is simply that of limitation, without countering overtones (an effect often conveyed by English 'just'). Consequently, when introducing a countering proposition, 'ak does not emphasise the contrast, as others have claimed. Rather, it limits or minimises the contrast, often with the effect of strengthening another assumption.

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/43033, This dissertation seeks to identify the uses and functions of וַיְהִי in biblical Hebrew. After an introduction to the topic and a review of the treatment of וַיְהִי in the grammars of biblical Hebrew, the theoretical framework of the Functional, Discourse- Pragmatic model of linguistic analysis implemented here is presented. This model focuses on the interaction of linguistic forms and their functions, exploring the choices made by language users and the effects of these choices on their communication.Before proceeding with the display of the occurrences of וַיְהִי fundamental aspects of the biblical Hebrew verbal system are discussed in order to establish the context within which וַיְהִי is analyzed. After presenting a preliminary distribution of וַיְהִי the occurrences are displayed according to its Verbal and Temporal uses. This detailed classification lays the foundation for consideration of the discourse-pragmatic functions of וַיְהִי which are discussed in the final chapter.This research was motivated by questions that arose from examples of וַיְהִי encountered in the biblical Hebrew text and from the discussion of its functions in the literature. The analysis of the verbal occurrences, representing 53% of the total instances, demonstrates the syntactic connection of וַיְהִי in these cases. This analysis shows that וַיְהִי has DEICTIC features that indicate its involvement in the systems of personal, spatial, and temporal reference. The identification of these DEICTIC features of the verbal uses provides a significant semantic and cognitive link to its functions in temporal expressions.The analysis of וַיְהִי in temporal expressions further informs understanding of its syntactic and narrative contexts. In these cases, וַיְהִי occurs in dependent clauses which requires attention to the subsequent clauses, resulting in additional categories of use. This analysis lays the foundation for discussing the discourse-pragmatic functions of וַיְ

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/43213, Les formes verbales du texte hébreu du livre d’Amos, à savoir le qatal, le yiqtol, le wqatal et le wayyiqtol, ainsi que l’impératif, le jussif, le cohortatif, les deux infinitifs et le participe ont été étudiées systématiquement et dans leur contexte en référence à la fonction qu’elles occupent au sein du système temps-aspect-mode de l’hébreu biblique. Les fonctions des formes verbales ont été répertoriées et classées. Pour chaque forme verbale, une ou plusieurs fonctions de base se sont dégagées, ainsi que des fonctions annexes. Dans leur ensemble et dans leur interdépendance, ces fonctions forment le système verbal d’Amos, avec ses deux concrétisations, celle des textes narratifs et celle des textes oratoires. Il ressort de l’étude que les formes verbales ont une fonction indirecte dans l’expression des temps verbaux (passé, présent, futur). L’aspect est exprimé par certaines formes verbales, dans certains contextes particuliers. La grande distinction à la base du système verbal est la distinction entre le realis et le modalis. L’étude des formes verbales dites consécutives montre également qu’elles n’expriment pas automatiquement une consécution linéaire. La présence de l’élément w- au sein des formes « consécutives » explique leur ancrage ou leur liaison logique avec ce qui précède. Le système verbal de l’hébreu biblique classique tel qu’il se présente dans le livre d’Amos est cohérent. A chaque forme correspondent une ou plusieurs fonctions de base et des fonctions secondaires. Sous certaines conditions, une fonction secondaire d’une forme verbale peut recouper la fonction principale d’une autre forme verbale., The Hebrew verb forms of the biblical book of Amos, (qatal, yiqtol, wqatal and wayyiqtol, as well as the imperative, jussive, cohortative, the two infinitives and the participle are studied systematically in context to determine the functions they fulfill in the tense-aspect-modality system of classical biblical Hebrew. The functions of each form are classified. For each form one or several basic functions can be shown which constitute – together and interdependently – the two realizations of the verbal system of the book of Amos, corresponding to narrative and discursive text types. The study shows that the verbal forms only indirectly function to expression tense. Only some forms express aspect, and only in some particular contexts. The primary dichotomy in the verbal system is the distinction between realis and modalis. The study of the so-called consecutive forms similarly shows that they do not express linear consecutivity. The presence of the element w- in these forms explains their anchoring or logical link to the preceding text. The Hebrew verbal system of tense-aspect-modality as it is manifest in the book of Amos is coherent. One or more basic verbal functions correspond to each form. Under some conditions, a secondary function of a given verb form may overlap with a primary function of another verb form.

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8962

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/40250, In this article, I begin with section 1 by presenting the five main sacrifices found in the first seven chapters of Leviticus, including their relations to the requirement for Israel to be holy. In section 2, I describe the functions of the levitical sacrifices, and in section 3, I compare these with the functions of the multifarious sacrifices carried out by the Supyire people in southern Mali. After arguing the case for translating the functions rather than the forms of the levitical sacrifices (contra the majority of English translations), I present, in section 4, suggestions for Supyire renderings of the sacrifices based on their functions.

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/9332

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/53965, This dissertation aims to show that an analysis of Biblical Hebrew clause types in terms of topicality and functional voice will make a contribution to the task of translating Hebrew into other languages. Hebrew has only two syntactic voice categories. But many other languages, including Austronesian languages, have a richer system of voice distinctions, with perhaps four main voices. It will be helpful to translators to clarify whether the topicality patterns behind such voice distinctions are signaled by Hebrew syntax. The analysis is carried out on a Hebrew corpus of 1917 semantically transitive clauses, as well as 640 clauses from Moronene, an Austronesian language of Sulawesi, Indonesia. These are categorized into clause types based on features including verb conjugation, constituent order, and object marking. For each clause, the topicality of the actor and undergoer is quantified by the variables anaphoric continuity and topic persistence. After undergoing principal component analysis, common clause types are plotted, clustered, and classified in terms of functional voice categories. For Hebrew narrative and directive discourse, infrequent and common clause types are grouped to form amalgamated clause types based on (1) type of object marking, (2) constituent order, (3) verb conjugation. Their topicality patterns are described and classified. Subsequently, common Hebrew narrative clause types are matched with Moronene narrative clause types having similar functional voice categorization. Biblical portions translated into Moronene are examined to see to what extent particular Hebrew clause types have been translated by matching Moronene clause types. Non-matching and rare clause types found in the Moronene translation were evaluated for naturalness, and some of them were revised. Some conclusions are: Although Hebrew has only two syntactic voice categories, its clause types form a large set of functional voice categories

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/40259, I argued in Levinsohn 2000a that Ancient Hebrew uses seemingly redundant nouns to refer to active subjects not only in connection with a change of time or location or when the speech or action performed by the subject is to be highlighted, but also to mark story development. Cross-linguistically, development may be marked on two axes: the linkage axis and/or the agent axis. Many verb-final languages mark development along both axes, as do some Bantu languages. Koiné Greek and English mark development primarily along the linkage axis by means of appropriate conjunctions. Ancient Hebrew and other Bantu languages mark development primarily along the agent axis. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these differences for translation.

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/9547

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/40255, Old Testament translation brings new challenges. This article touches on some of the areas which may need special attention when translating the Hebrew Bible. These include textual issues, hapax legomena, genre, and poetical language. Textual problems in the OT are more difficult to handle compared to those in the NT. Rare words or words that occur only once are more frequent and difficult to explain. Some of the text types differ from those of the NT and need to be investigated because they can influence our exegesis. Finally, the poetical language is richer and more abundant and may challenge some of our translation theories. The article does not cover these issues in any depth but is intended to raise awareness, give guidance, and suggest some further helps.

http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/40241, The article is best seen as a follow-up article in a series of articles about this topic that have previously appeared in The Bible Translator (1992) and in NOT (1997). The article explores the meaning of YHWH in various contexts, and what the implications of this analysis are for Bible translators. It concludes that there are only two legitimate options for representing YHWH, and it provides translators with a clear set of criteria that will help the translator to determine which one of these two representations should be used.

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Published dissertation, http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/6844

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