King James translates Jonah 2:6(7) as: I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever. The
English etymology of 'ever' is uncertain, but both 'forever' and 'for
eternity' are merely turns of speech for long, long time, an
indefinite period of time, an occurrence with no end in sight.
Nowadays MA-ASAR OLAM is 'life in prison', but even this may not last
"forever".
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Dec 11, 2010, at 7:28 PM, fred burlingame wrote:
Hello Isaac:
Thanks for your explanation of the עולם root.
How would you apply that understanding to the meaning of עולם in
jonah 2:6? "The bars of the earth surrounded me for a vast and
lofty period of time?"
Obviously, Jonah cannot be praying for relief from "eternity"
because eternity changes not.
regards,
fred burlingame
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 4:39 PM, Isaac Fried <[email protected]> wrote:
I see the root (LM, or merely LM, as consisting of the combination
of the single-consonant root L, 'lofty', and the single-consonant
root M, 'massive, vast'. in the HB, (OLAM is mostly applied to
time, but is nowadays used also for space, in the sense of
'universe, world'.
In the word ELEM, the reference is to the body.
The root עלם appears also in the form אלם, as in אלומה,
'sheaf, large pile', and אולם, 'large hall'. Nowadays אלים
is 'bully, intimidator'.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Dec 11, 2010, at 2:30 AM, Bryant J. Williams III wrote:
Jenni holds that its basic meaning "most distant times"
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
