Lk 1:76

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 11 20:56:56 EDT 2002


Forwarded for George Somsel:

>In a message dated 9/11/2002 5:36:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu forwards on behalf of Sylvie Chabert d'Hyères:
>
>--Ben Sirach 51:14 on the prayer of the priest for the people before the
>Holy of Holies, a text which can be associated with Ex 28:12 and 29. If an
>association can be made between Ben Sirach and some verses of the Torah,
>would it be inappropriate to give weight to Luke's verse by comparison with
>these texts? ENANTI is rather infrequent to count; however in the Hebrew
>Mt, "lifnei", the equivalent of ENANTI, is very frequent and does not call
>for comment. Also I wonder whether ENANTI would not form part of a
>vocabulary specific to a sacerdotal context - of Alexandria or elsewhere -
>and is discernible in the introductions of certain Psalms of the LXX,
>indicating, for example, the day of the week; PS 91: EIS THN hHMERAN TOU
>SABBATOU. PS 93 TETRADI SABBATWN.
>_____________________


Sirach speaks of ENANTI NAOU "before the temple", not the "Holy of Holies"
specifically and exclusively.  You are correct that LIF:N"Y is quite frequent
in the Hebrew.  It does not seem, however, to BY ITSELF have a cultic sense.
We have, e.g., in Gen 6.11

WaT.i$fX"T Hf)fRe+ LiF:N"Y ) Ha):eLoHiYM
And the earth was corrupt before God

but it not only has a locative usage, but a temporal one as well as in Gen
13.10

LiF:N"Y $aX"T YHWH )eT_SeDoM
before YHWH destroyed Sodom

or a locative usage in regard to other men as in Gen 23.12

LiF:N"Y (aM Hf)fRe+
before the people of the land

PS 91: EIS THN hHMERAN TOU SABBATOU [Heb Ps 92]

would seem to indicate "On [or 'For'] the Sabbath" and

PS 93 TETRADI SABBATWN [Heb Ps 94]
might be "On [or 'For' -- dat.] the fourth Sabbath"??

What puzzles me is what has EIS to do with ENANTI?  These appear to be
temporal statements.

gfsomsel
Polycarp66 at aol.com



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