From: Dick Fischer (dickfischer@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Oct 29 2003 - 11:44:18 EST
Gordon Brown wrote:
>On Tue, 28 Oct 2003, Vernon Jenkins wrote:
>
> > Hi Gordon,
> >
> > I quite agree that Scripture must be read in context. But this you are
> > failing to do in respect of Gen.2:6, I suggest. Here is the NASB rendering:
> > "But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the
> > ground." This is surely more suggestive of a _dew-like_ process than
> > rainfall. Again, if you are correct, reference to the _absence_ of rain in
> > the previous verse would surely lead one to expect the simpler and more
> > direct sequel, "Then it rained." - or its equivalent. In this context I
> fail
> > to see that Job 36:27 supports your contention.
>
>You are assuming the correctness of a particular translation whereas
>comparison of translations shows that they must be guessing at the meaning
>of a rare word. There seems to be nothing unusual about mentioning the
>precursor of rain.
Driver suggests Genesis 2:5-6 is about irrigation:
Provision made for the irrigation of the garden. The reference is
implicitly to a system of canals, such as existed in Babylonia ...
The Septuagint offers further assistance. In the Greek text, the word is
not "mist," but "fountain." The RSV uses "stream." Could part of an
irrigation system be called a "fountain"? Could a canal be called a
"stream"? At least could we agree that the words fountain and stream
better describe a system of irrigation than they do a vapor canopy? It
seems "there was not a man to till the ground" for an uncomplicated
reason. No one had irrigated the desert soil; thus no plowing had been
done, so no crops could be grown.
Mist, the Hebrew 'ed, derives from the Accadian edu. Theological Wordbook
of the Old Testament comments on this word as it appears in Genesis 2:6:
"Earlier translators did not have access to the ancient cuneiform languages
which help to determine the meaning of these difficult words." And further:
The Akkadian edu refers to the annual inundation of Babylon
by the Euphrates as well as to irrigation. If Eden was watered
by floods and irrigation rather than rain, it may have been located
in an area like southern Mesopotamia where it does not rain.
Such a location would suggest that the paradisiacal situation
was not worldwide but peculiar to Eden's immediate environs.
Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
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