tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22103379.post5212623742697561410..comments2024-01-25T05:14:08.269-08:00Comments on gptsrabbi: Amenemope 4: "Excellent Things" or "Thirty?"Benjamin Shawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16983772163162004808noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22103379.post-17497853866944733382009-11-30T13:18:25.649-08:002009-11-30T13:18:25.649-08:00I read your analysis of this difficult translation...I read your analysis of this difficult translation with great interest.<br /><br />Thirty is a problem because the Hebrew word for thirty does not appear in the text. Similarly, there are not 30 sayings, but rather fewer (27 or so). Excellent things is awkward at best, and might refer to the word "three" which often means the best, as in "three is a charm."<br /><br />Neither "excellent things" nor "thirty" seem appropriate. Rather, the difficult is in interpreting the Hebrew word shaylish, which as you noted refers to a "captain of some sort." Actually, the context is quite different here; the reference to a "captain" is actually to the third and senior most person on a chariot. The first would be the driver (lowly, like a slave), the second the weapons servant, the third the officer or "captain." However, there is no context for chariot driving here.<br /><br />The Vulgate translates shaylish as "tripliciter" which leads, in my opinion, toward the better translation which can be found in Young's literal translation, from St. Jerome's Vulate, and by Bernard McGinn, to wit: "Have I not written to thee three times with counsels and knowledge" (Young) and "ecce descripsi eam tibi tripliciter in cogitationibus et scientia" from St. Jerome. McGinn beautifully translates it as: "“Behold, have I not told it to you in a three-fold way [in reflection and knowledge]?”<br /><br />The latter translation is preferable amongst all that are current in the various English bibles.<br /><br />Why are these distinctions important? They are because of the emphasis on the number three. This number is sacred and reflects a ubiquitous leitmotif in the OT and NT: the three days of the resurrection, the three lands of the exodus (Egypt > Wilderness > Promised Land), the three sons of Adam and Eve, on and on. We could compile a very large list where the number 3 is dominant in a given narrative. Why? Because 3 represents the process of spiritual growth of any human soul, from animal like and murderous (Cain) to adolescent and willful but sinful (Abel) to fully resurrected and detached from the values of the materialist world (Seth).<br /><br />In other words, Proverbs 22:20 is a commentary on the typology of 3 found ubiquitously.<br /><br />Of course, this interpretation requires that one abandon and pretext to literality in understanding the meaning of the three days of the resurrection or the exodus account. They are edifying narratives with symbolic meaning, not historical recollections.Nedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04662295996306750526noreply@blogger.com