From fork-admin@xent.com Mon Aug 26 15:32:28 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.netnoteinc.com Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by phobos.labs.netnoteinc.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 25B3444162 for ; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:26:38 -0400 (EDT) Received: from phobos [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 26 Aug 2002 15:26:38 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g7PGqXZ19440 for ; Sun, 25 Aug 2002 17:52:34 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D98332940AA; Sun, 25 Aug 2002 09:50:09 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org Received: from www.fastmail.fm (fastmail.fm [209.61.183.86]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id EC96C2940A2 for ; Sun, 25 Aug 2002 09:49:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from www.fastmail.fm (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6EF3D6DB19; Sun, 25 Aug 2002 11:50:57 -0500 (CDT) Received: from server3.fastmail.fm (server3.internal [10.202.2.134]) by www.fastmail.fm (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9B61F6DAFF; Sun, 25 Aug 2002 11:50:56 -0500 (CDT) Received: by server3.fastmail.fm (Postfix, from userid 99) id C0EE52FD33; Sun, 25 Aug 2002 11:50:54 -0500 (CDT) Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: MIME::Lite 1.2 (F2.6; T1.001; A1.48; B2.12; Q2.03) From: "James Tauber" To: johnhall@evergo.net, fork@spamassassin.taint.org X-Epoch: 1030294257 X-Sasl-Enc: P8OwrRaDs2VlLKfQnqm1Zg Subject: Re: A biblical digression Message-Id: <20020825165054.C0EE52FD33@server3.fastmail.fm> Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@spamassassin.taint.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 16:50:54 UT On Sat, 24 Aug 2002 11:07:00 -0700, "John Hall" said: > Ran across a site which claimed to explain the original meaning of the > Ten Commandments. It seems some of those meanings have evolved a bit, > too. By "meanings have evolved" do you [or they] mean that the Hebrew words have changed meaning or that our understanding of the Hebrew words have changed? Or do they posit a pre-Mosaic form of the laws that had evolved by time of the Pentateuch? > In particular, there was a claim that the commandment on stealing was > actually specifically about 'man stealing -- selling a free man into > slavery. This seems bogus to me. A quick check of the text indicates the the Hebrew word in question is GANAV which elsewhere in the Pentateuch (eg Gen 44.8) is used to mean steal silver and gold amongst other things. In July 1999, I made the following comment in response to a similar claim about the "real" meaning of one of the ten commandments: """ > The translations since cause problems at each successive remove We have the original language versions, though, so this is not an issue. > I'm sure most everyone is familiar with the argument that the meaning of the commandment > is 'thou shalt not murder' rather than 'kill,' This has nothing to do with successive translations. It is based on our knowledge of the meaning of the Hebrew word "ratsach". Most modern translations I've seen translate it "murder" but elsewhere the word is used of an animal killing a human (something for which most English speakers wouldn't use the word "murder"). """ - http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/july99/0163.html James -- James Tauber jtauber@jtauber.com http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork