Nicholas Wyatt rendered Genesis 3:4-5, 22 thusly:
Then the snake to the
woman, ‘You will certainly not die!’ For God knows that on the day that you eat
from it your eyes will be opened and you will become gods, knowing all things.’
. . . And Yahweh-God said, ‘Look! The
man has become one of us, knowing all things. . . . (Nicholas Wyatt, Space
and Time in the Religious Life of the Near East [Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 2001], 243)
In a note to the above, Wyatt adds that:
‘Become gods’: The Hebrew (kēlōhîm) is usually translated as a comparison, ‘like gods’. It is stronger than that. Similarly in 3:22, ‘one of us’. (Ibid., 244 n. 4)
Wyatt references the following from Waltke and O’Connor’s work on biblical
Hebrew syntax:
(2) Agreement in kind is
also marked with k (# 3), cf. 'Joshua is like Moses as a prophet.' In
this English example, 'as a prophet' specifies the point of comparison or
tertium quid, the "third thing" in terms of which the likeness is
proposed. The "third thing" need not be specified—it is often evident
from the discourse; in poetry the point of comparison may be left vague in
order to allow an analogy to open up, inducing the reader to engage the analogy
and find not one but many contacts between the things compared. Agreement in
manner or norm (cf. 'Joshua is a prophet in the manner of Moses') is akin to
agreement in kind (## 4–7). (3) The logical outcome of comparison is
correspondence or identity, cf. 'Moses loves Joshua as (he does) himself.' The
agreement of the things compared is complete, insofar as the discourse is
concerned (kaph veritatis; # 8). Identity constructions formed with k
often involve a double use of k: in discourse about X, we find either kX kY or,
more often, kY kX(## 9–10); both are used in legal materials. The second of
these patterns has come into English: 'Like father, like son.' (Bruce K. Waltke
and M. O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax [Winona Lake,
Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1990, 2004], 203)
To Support this Blog:
