"And when Abram was ninety nine years old and the LORD appeared to Abram, and he said to him, I am El Shaddai, walk before me, and be perfect." Genesis 17:1
Before examining the word Shaddai, let us take a moment to discuss some of the problems with Biblical translations. There are many factors that go into a translation which are invisible and unknown to the reader of a translation. Most Bible readers assume that the English translation of the Bible is an equivalent representation of the original text. Because of the vast difference between the ancient Hebrews' language and our own, as well as the differences in the two cultures, an exact translation is impossible. The difficult job of the translator is to bridge the gap between the languages and cultures. Since the Hebrew text can be translated many different ways, the translator's personal beliefs will often dictate how the text will be translated. A translation of the Biblical text is a translator's interpretation of the original text based on his own theology and doctrine. The reader is then forced to use the translators understanding of the text as his foundation for the text. For this reason, readers will often compare translations, but are usually limited to Christian translations. I always recommend including a "Jewish" translation when comparing texts, as this will give a translation from a different perspective. Yes, it will be biased toward the Jewish faith, but Christian translations are biased toward the Christian faith as well. A comparison of the two translations can help to discover the bias of each. The translator's task is compounded by the presence of words and phrases whose original meanings have been lost. In these cases the translator will attempt to interpret the words and phrases as best as possible based on the context of the word and the translators opinion of what the author was attempting to convey. When the reader of the translation comes across the translator's attempts at translating the difficult text, the reader makes the assumption that the translator has accurately translated the text. Most Bible translations translate this word as "Almighty." Many times a translator will not translate a Hebrew word literally because the literal meaning would mean nothing to the Western mind, and in some cases would actually be offensive to the Western reader. Such is the case with the word "ShDy" (shaddai). The use of the word "Almighty" by the translator is his attempt at translating the text in a manner that will both make sense to the Western reader as well as retain some of the meaning of the original Hebrew word. The parent root for this word is "ShD" (shad). The original pictographs for this word are, "Sh" is a picture of the two front teeth and has the meaning of "sharp," "press" (as from chewing) as well as "two." The "D" is a picture of a tent door with a meaning of "hang" or "dangle" as the door is hung or dangles down from the top of the tent. The combined meanings of the "Sh" and "D" would be "two danglers." The goat was a very common animal within the herds of the Hebrews. It produces milk within the udder and is extracted by the goat kid by squeezing and sucking on the two teats dangling below the udder. The function of these teats is to provide all the necessary nourishment for the kids, as they would die without it. The Hebrew word "ShDy" (shaddai) also has the meaning of a "teat." Just as the goat provides nourishment to its kids through the milk, God nourishes his children through his milk and provides all the necessities of life. This imagery can be seen in the following passage: "And I will come down to snatch them [Israel] from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and wide land to a land flowing with milk and honey." Exodus 3:8 The word "ydX" (teat) is often coupled with the word "la" (mighty, strong) creating the phrase "AL ShDy" (el shaddai) literally meaning the "mighty teat," hence we can see the translator's reluctance to literally translate this phrase in this manner and instead using the more sanitized "God Almighty." Hope this helps You might want to download this pdf http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/bookstore/e-books/hno.pdf Rich AHRC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> --- In [email protected], Lynne Valle <ldeva...@...> wrote: > > * > * > > * > * > > *El Shadday: the Breasted One (Psalm 87; Galatians 4:26; Revelation 12)* > > > Can anyone help me with verifying that El Shadday can mean "The Breasted > One" > > Erin Burroughs wrote the following in an article: > > "Strong's Bible Concordance lists "El" (word #410) as meaning "God;" and > "Shadday" (word 7706) as meaning "Almighty," where the title "really > indicates the fullness and riches of God's grace, that He is never weary > of pouring forth His mercies on His people, and that He is more ready to > give than they are to receive," and where "bountiful expresses the sense > most exactly." When we look at the word "bountiful," we see that it is > from the Latin "bonita-s." In the Oxford Latin Dictionary, we see that > "bonita-s" is a *feminine* adjective for "goodness, kindness, > benevolence." When we look at the Hebrew root words for Shadday, which > are "shad" and "day," we see in Strong's Bible Concordance that "shad" > (word 7699) means "the breast of a woman" and "day" (word 1767) means > "enough, sufficient, from, able, according to, after ability, among, as > oft as, more than enough, in, much as is sufficient, sufficiently, very." > > Thanks for the help, > Lynne > > > -- > May His richest blessings be with you, > Lynne Erickson Valle - Psalms 45:1 >
