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By Jacob I. M. Falkenau.
(Continued
from Issue #4)
Finally we derive from the latter periods of the Hebrew
an additional proof for our statement, from a fact which has hitherto
been considered a problem in Hebrew writing, but which can be readily
explained and understood from the premises laid down. It is a fact,
known to every Hebrew scholar, that in all the Hebrew writings
subsequent to the Bible, the verb הֵחֵל
is almost generally avoided, and on its place a new perfect verb תחל
has been formed--of the bilateral חל
with the servile letter ת-- and so in all the frequent occasions
for its use, instead of the former, stands this latter in its Hiph'il
species הִתְחִיל,
"to begin." This strange radical innovation of the one and
disuse of the other, will, by our premised definitions, become at once
plain and necessary, with the single remark, that התחיל has been innovated and formed to
represent--what החל* never did--the pure
and simple idea of the very "to begin," either as a neuter or
an active verb.
Derivations,
such as חלל, a
musical instrument with "holes," or, the dance attended by
such "hollow" instruments, and the like others, the reader may
himself easily explain, or else find this done by others; hence we have
omitted them in this place as unnecessary.
Next
to the root חלל
stands קרא in our
text, which, in common with its compound terms קרא
שֵם and קרא
בְשֵם follows now in the order of
our definitions. The latter קרא
שם differs equally and widely from both the former;
and between these two extremes we have the verb קרא
שם followed by the noun without the preposition; and
in these various constructions the Bible presents a proper and nice
distinction, founded upon a true principle, common to every language,
which has not yet been noticed by our best lexicographers. Of the
elementary difference between proper and common nouns, it might be said,
that the object of the former has a name as its own, its
property, and that of the latter has no name, but a word
expressing its kind or sort; we ask of the former, what is its
"name?" and of the latter, "what is it?" This very
point constitutes the distinction between and קרא
שם, maintained in the Bible without exception. It
says of a common noun קרא,
"to call," and of a proper noun קרא
שם, "to call a name." Instances of the
former: Gen. 10.5, 8, 10; 2.23; Exod. 33.7; 1 Sam. 9.9; Isai 10.26;
14.20; 32.5; 35.8; 54.7; 58.13; 60.18; Hos. 2.18; Zech 11.7; Prov. 7.4;
14.21. To prevent misunderstanding, let us remark, that to a certain
class of names, though proper nouns, the same consideration applies on
account of their being formed by two or more separate words, partly
consisting of a common noun, as Gen. 14.14; 21.31; Numb. 13.24;
32.41; Judges 10.4; 15.17; 18.12; 1 Sam. 23.28; 2 Sam. 5.9; 6.8; Isai
60.14; Ezek. 34.11; 1 Chron. 6.7.
The
latter קרא שם,
with exception of the instances enumerated, occurs on almost every
occasion of "calling a name," and is thus too numerous in the
Bible, and is too familiar to every reader, to need any special
quotation here.
We
may assert that our position will be found to be correct in every case
where these phrases occur, if we bear in mind the two following
considerations:
a.
The simple verb קרא
may signify calling a proper noun, when the word שם
immediately precedes or follows the phrase, as then a reference of the
one to the other can be easily understood, as Gen. 31.49; 35.18; Numb.
13.16; 32.42; Jos. 19.47.
b.
When a proper noun is called by a foreign tongue, the thing
becomes so obvious by that circumstance, that the simple verb קרא
is sufficient, as Gen. 31.47; Deut. 2.11, 20; 3.9.
As
a derivation from its primitive meaning, the term קרא
שם denotes also, to get a name, to get reputation.
Ruth 4.11.
Quite
different from the preceding is the term קרא
בשם; it implies no such action as to give a
name, but on the contrary, supposes its object to be already in
possession of a name, and denotes, to cal it by that name, to specify
it, to nominate it for something, as, Exod. 31.2; 35.30; Josh 21.9;
Isai 45.4; Ps. 49.12; Esther 2.14.
Both
the terms are most strikingly elucidated in the two parallel-phrases:
Ps.
147.4: "He telleth the number of the stars," לְכֻלָם
שֵמות
יִקְרָא
Isai
40.26: "Lift up your eyes on high and behold who," &c. לְכֻלָם
בְשֵם
יִקְרָא
In
the former the royal Psalmist speaks in praise of the Omniscient,
"He telleth the number of the (innumerable) stars" — "He gives names (innumerable) to
them all," שם
יקרא; or in the plural שמות;
but Isaiah takes the figure in another light, he presents the stars to
his hearers, as a mighty heavenly host, a celestial army, arranged,
numbered, and named every one, all marking out, "not one
faileth," for the Lord "calls out every one by its
name," בשם
יקרא. The English version of Ps. 147.4,
"He called them all by their names," needs indeed some
alteration, as at present it neither answers for the term קרא
שם, nor does it rightly render the meaning of
the phrase "that the Lord alone knows to number and name the
stars." It would do very well when transposed to the
parallel-phrase, Isai. 40.26, where it would represent the original with
much more perspicuity than the present translation.
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