Friday, October 18, 2024

Note on Genesis 49:25

In his translation of Gen 49:25, David Calabro renders the verse as “from God your father, who will help you / and the Father Almighty, who will bless you.” This is based on replacing the particle את with אל. Commenting on this, Calabro notes that:

 

The text is susceptible to multiple interpretations based on the reading in some manuscripts and versions. O. Eißfeldt assumes that ‘et here is a mistake for ‘el, “God.” See Otto Eißfeldt, prep., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Liber Genesis, ed. Karl Ellinger et al. (Stuttgart: DEU: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1969), 83. The first part of the verse is usually translated as “by the God of your father,” but whether the first two nouns are in a genitive relationship or in an apposition cannot be determined from the forms alone. The relationship is likewise unclear in the Septuagint, in which both noun phrases are in the genitive case. The Common English Bible (2011), unlike modern translations, render the first part of the verse as “by God, your father,” which agrees with my suggested translation. (David Calabro, “Ancient Israelite Temple Ritual Through the Telescope of Restoration Scripture,” in The Temple: Plates, Patterns, and Patriarchs [Temple on Mount Zion Series 7; Orem, Utah: the Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2024], 373 n. 12)

 

Here is a scan of the Otto Eißfeldt text as referenced above:

 


 

 

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