transliteration issues
So I have a 10:10 Hebrew Bible course with Richard Elliot Friedman (who until very recently was at UCSD but just got to UGA like.... 6 days ago) MWF this semester. Yesterday we covered Gen. 1-3, and spent a ton of time looking at the name of G-d in Hebrew: YHWH or י ה ו ה for the Hebraically inclined who may be reading (that actually is important for later on in this article, so keep that visual in mind).
In English translation, whenever YHWH is translated to English, the word we generally get is LORD (in all caps to deliniate it from 'Adonai, the Hebrew word for lord). A tradition arose after the time of Biblical Hebrew of not saying or writing the name of G-d out loud (which leads to a wonderful tradition, especially in Orthodox traditions, of saying the word "hashem" or "the name" whenever the word YHWH is present in a reading--G-d becomes "he who must not be named"). So, ultimately, the actual pronounciation of G-d's name was lost.
Anyways, When the Tanakh was originally translated from Hebrew to Greek, the translator was awesome about handling the name of G-d. Rather than translate as the Greek word for Lord (Kyrie: Κύριε ), the translator left YHWH in Hebrew. So, for all of you who need a visual (in English), it would have read like this:
Exodus 12:36: And the DROL had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people....
So, it read along Greek Greek Greek Hebrew Greek Greek Greek. Remember, that Hebrew is written RIGHT-TO-LEFT, so the translator literally would have had to pick up his pen, then write backwards (for him), pick up his pen again and continue on in Greek.
An error in translation occured later. Another Greek translator came along, and was presented in the middle of the Greek with י ה ו ה. Not realizing that Hebrew was a right-to-left language, he transposed the closest Greek letters visually: Π Ι Π Ι (pi iota pi iota), written of course left-to-right.
An thus the "pee-pee" Bible was formed.... I'm not kiddin' y'all...
Yes, ultimately, potty humor is the highest form of humor.
In English translation, whenever YHWH is translated to English, the word we generally get is LORD (in all caps to deliniate it from 'Adonai, the Hebrew word for lord). A tradition arose after the time of Biblical Hebrew of not saying or writing the name of G-d out loud (which leads to a wonderful tradition, especially in Orthodox traditions, of saying the word "hashem" or "the name" whenever the word YHWH is present in a reading--G-d becomes "he who must not be named"). So, ultimately, the actual pronounciation of G-d's name was lost.
Anyways, When the Tanakh was originally translated from Hebrew to Greek, the translator was awesome about handling the name of G-d. Rather than translate as the Greek word for Lord (Kyrie: Κύριε ), the translator left YHWH in Hebrew. So, for all of you who need a visual (in English), it would have read like this:
Exodus 12:36: And the DROL had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people....
So, it read along Greek Greek Greek Hebrew Greek Greek Greek. Remember, that Hebrew is written RIGHT-TO-LEFT, so the translator literally would have had to pick up his pen, then write backwards (for him), pick up his pen again and continue on in Greek.
An error in translation occured later. Another Greek translator came along, and was presented in the middle of the Greek with י ה ו ה. Not realizing that Hebrew was a right-to-left language, he transposed the closest Greek letters visually: Π Ι Π Ι (pi iota pi iota), written of course left-to-right.
An thus the "pee-pee" Bible was formed.... I'm not kiddin' y'all...
Yes, ultimately, potty humor is the highest form of humor.
posted by Holly at 9:41 AM
3 Comments:
When you say that one particular translator handled it in an "awesome" way, do you really mean that, or is it sarcasm? Because its not a bad idea to leave it in original Hebrew, as long as at the beginning, in the copyright etc., you mention that you did that. "Any instance of X in the text should be treated as Hebrew, and read as such in the Hebrew tradition." If he didn't say that, and just left the reader to his own devices, I can understand the frustration! :-p
No, it wasn't sarcastic. I think it's great to keep certain things in the original language, the name of G-d being one of those.
Well, at least the translator realized that you had to read it backwards, because then you would have the Lord being referenced to as "ipip". Now imagine that name being engraved in altars, being the name of churches, all that jazz. Fun stuff.
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