Sunday, January 11, 2009
Matthew 03:09 linguistic word play in Hebrew
In Matthew 03:09, the Hebrew word for “Stones,” eben (אבן) is a pun for “Children,” ben (בן). The word play in this verse is similar to the word play in Genesis 17:5 where a single letter is added to Abram’s name, “Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made you." The Shem Tob Hebrew version of Matthew contains the Hebrew spellings that I indicated for Matthew 03:09. More linguistic information is available from the notes in The Comprehensive New Testament: http://www.cornerstonepublications.org/prod01.htm
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1 comment:
The Bible is full of these word plays, some more subtle than others, generally lost in translation.
Genesis Chapter 3, arrummim, refers to Adam and Eve's state sans clothing, which plays on arum, shrewd, as in the serpent described in the next verse.
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