[B-Greek] ANA MESON in Genesis 1
Albert Pietersma
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Tue Jul 24 19:36:39 EDT 2007
What we have in the LXX is a Hebraism, i.e. an instance of negative
transfer from the source language. Whereas in Hebrew the preposition
"between" (BEN) is typically issued before every object, in Greek
and English that is not the case. Since LXX Greek is typically
isomorphic (i.e. each morpheme of the source is represented), ANA
MESON is often used twice rather than once. What results is non-
idiomatic Greek, which is then rendered by NETS as non-idiomatic
English. See http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/
Isomorphism also explain why ANA MESON is used despite the meaning of
DIEXWRISEN. Tautologies of this kind are common in the LXX.
In sum, in translations like the LXX the use of the target language
is often not straightforward.
Al
On Jul 24, 2007, at 6:22 PM, Anthony wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> In keeping with a recent suggestion on the site, I've taken a break
> from
> the NT, and am reading Genesis in the LXX.
>
> I quickly hit something that I would be interested in hearing
> responses on.
>
> Genesis 1:4 KAI DIEXWRISEN hO QEOS ANA MESON TOU FWTOS KAI ANA
> MESON TOU
> SKOTOUS
>
> Traditionally this is translated "God separated the light from the
> darkness", which seems to ignore the ANA MESON. Now, I realise
> that most
> tranlsations are of course based on the Hebrew, but even those that
> are
> not seem to ignore that this phrase is used twice.
>
> Even more pertinently, it appears again in verse 6.
>
> Given that DIEXWRISEN refers to the subject "seprarating", or
> "dividing",
> what is the purpose of ANA MESON? Especially as it is used twice. Can
> someone give me some direction here?
>
> Kind regards to all
>
> Anthony Rimell
> Auckland
> New Zealand
>
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