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Blessing in Action Blessing in Action A study into the verbal forms of the Priestly Blessing with special attention to its genre, structure and to parallel texts mainly from a syntactical perspective. Thesis Presented to dr. M.C.A. Korpel Department of Theology of the Faculty of Arts Utrecht University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Master Program “Wortels en ontwikkeling van het christendom” by J.A.J. Pater Studentnumber: 9604154 Wednesday 20th June, 2012 Dankwoord Mijn dank gaat uit naar de volgende personen. Marjo Korpel hartelijk dank voor de begeleiding, in het bijzonder op het moment waarop ik vast liep. Arie Uyterlinde, hartelijk dank voor de wijze lessen. Marlies en Jonathan hartelijk dank dat jullie het hebben volgehouden als ik weer met de “skipsie” bezig was. Bovenal gaat mijn dank uit naar God. Soli Deo Gloria. i Wer Großes will, muß sich zusammenraffen; In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister Sonette Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Voorwoord Voor u ligt mijn masterthesis over de Hogepriesterlijke Zegen uit Numeri 6 en dan in het bijzonder de werkwoorden van deze zegen. Voordat ik aan dit project begon wist ik niet dat het schrijven van een thesis zo moeilijk kon zijn. Mijn oorspronkelijke opzet was anders. Deze bleek echter, zeker op de gedetailleerde manier waarop ik het wilde aanpakken, veel en veel te ambitieus. Toen ik mij realiseerde dat mijn thesis de omvang zou krijgen van een proefschrift en dat ik op deze manier nog enkele jaren nodig zou hebben, heb ik contact opgenomen met Marjo Korpel. Op haar aanraden heb ik er toen één hoofdstuk uitgenomen om dit om te werken naar een thesis. Het resultaat ligt voor u. Dat betekent wel dat de opzet minder systematisch is dan ik had gewild en dat het geheel wat onsamenhangend kan overkomen. Ook methodisch had één en ander beter doordacht kunnen worden. U zult een veelheid aan appendices vinden. Dit is gedaan om de thesis zelf niet al te lang te laten worden. Toch wilde ik u als lezer dit materiaal niet onthouden. Leeswijzer Bij wijze van leeswijzer hier een vermelding van de belangrijkste elementen van deze thesis. Hoofdstuk 1 geeft informatie over hoe de thesis is opgezet en is dus belangrijk. Van hoofdstuk 2 zijn vooral 2.1 tot en met 2.4 van belang. Van hoofdstuk 3 is vooral 3.1 interessant. Voor de hoofdstukken 4 en 5 geldt dat bij het lezen van de samenvattingen de belangrijkste elementen van het onderzoek wel naar voren komen. Het gaat om sectie 4.8 en voor hoofdstuk 5 om samenvatting van 5.1 die begint op bladzijde 70, om sectie 5.2 en de samenvattingen van 5.3, 5.4 en 5.5 die respectievelijk beginnen op bladzijde 79, 85 en 91. En verder natuurlijk hoofdstuk 6 in zijn geheel, vooral de conclusie 6.3. Alle vertalingen in deze thesis zijn van mijzelf, tenzij anders is aangegeven. iii Preface Before you is my Master’s thesis on the Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6, focussing in particular on the verbs of this blessing. Before this project started I did not know that writing a thesis that could be that difficult. My original intent was quite different and proved way to ambitious, especially because of the detailed way I wanted to tackle it. When I realized that my thesis was growing out of proportion and that I would need some more years to complete it (if continuing on the road taken), I panicked and consulted with Marjo Korpel. She advised to take out one chapter and rework it into a thesis. This is what I did and the result is the thesis that is before you. The whole has become less systematic, less coherent and less methodical than I would have liked. The attentive reader will find a multitude of appendixes. This has been done to reduce the size of the thesis proper. Still the material might interest the curious reader and thus it is added. Reading Guide By way of a reading guide the most important elements of this thesis wil be mentioned here. Chapter 1 provides information on how the thesis is set up and is therefore important. From Chapter 2 especially section 2.1 to 2.4 are important. From Chapter 3 section 3.1 is interesting. For Chapters 4 and 5 it would be enough to read the summaries because they provide all of the key elements of the research. These are the Sections 4.8 and the summary of 5.1 beginning on page 73, section 5.2, and the summaries of 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 respectively, starting on page 82, 88 and 94. And of course the whole of Chapter 6, especially the conclusion in section 6.3. All translations are my own, unless otherwise mentioned. iv Contents Dankwoord i Voorwoord iii Preface iv Contents v Nomenclature viii 1 Statement of the Problem 1 1.1 Introduction . 1 1.2 Research Question . 2 1.3 Definitions and Limitations . 2 1.4 Some Theoretical Background . 5 1.5 Relevance . 7 1.6 Method and Scope . 8 1.7 Thesis Overview . 9 2 Text and Context 11 2.1 Delimitation of the Pericope . 11 2.2 Macro Textual Context . 11 2.3 Structure and Translation . 15 2.4 Genre . 20 2.5 Intertextuality . 24 2.6 Anthropology, Sociology, Institutions . 30 2.7 Summary and Implications . 34 3 Some syntactical Issues 35 3.1 Syntactic and Semantic Relations . 35 3.2 Jussive Form and Force . 38 3.3 Syntax of Verse 27 . 43 v 46 ברך The verb 4 4.1 Introduction . 46 4.2 Method of Selecting Parallel Passages . 47 47 ............................ אמר and ברך 4.3 52 ........................ אמר and ברך Again 4.4 second person . 55 ברך 4.5 and a Nota . 58 ברך More Texts with 4.6 4.7 Piʿel Yiqṭōl Third Person with Suffix Second Person . 61 63 ........................ ברך Conclusions for 4.8 5 Other Verbs 65 65 ................................ שׁמר 5.1 71 ................................. שׂים 5.2 73 ................................. אור 5.3 80 ................................. נשׂא 5.4 86 ................................. חנן 5.5 6 Discussion and Conclusion 92 6.1 Genre Revisited . 92 6.2 Semantic Relations Between the Verbs . 93 6.3 Conclusion . 97 Bibliography 98 A Translation 108 B Textual Criticism 111 C Some Historical Issues 114 D Different Kinds of Blessing 117 E Suffixes and Singular Address 119 F Event Schemas 121 124 כֹּה G H Blessing in Deuteronomy 125 126 שׂים I 129 אל על J vi 130 נשׂא K L Joseph and his Wish for Benjamin 132 vii Nomenclature אֶ ת acc Accusative, in Hebrew often act Active advm Adverb of manner ”to“ אֶ ל all Allative, in Hebrew often bhs Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensia: 4th edition bh Biblical Hebrew caus Causative i.e. belonging to the hipʿil binyan cnst Construct co Coordinator לְ dat Dative, in Hebrew often depv Dependent verb form i.e. wəqāṭal form of the verb form imp Imperative imt Interlinear Morphemic Translation infa Infinitive absolute infc Infinitive construct ints Intensive i.e. belonging to the piʿel binyan juss Jussive i.e. short form of yiqṭōl conjugation mt Masoretic Text narr Narrative (tense) i.e. gloss for wayyiqṭōl conjugation viii nprf Nonperfective i.e. yiqṭōl form of the verb n Nomen objm Object marker pl Plural poss Possesive prep Preposition prn Pronoun or Pronomen ”upon“ ﬠַ ל sups Supperessive, in Hebrew often Coh Cohortative Hiph Hiphil Hit Hithpael Imp Imperative Ind Independent InfA Infinitive Absolute InfC Infinitive Construct ipf Imperfect sometimes used to indicate the yiqṭōl form of the verb Jus Jussive Ni Niphal Obj Object p Plural Pass Passive Prn Pronoun or Pronomen Ptc Participle Absolute Qtl Qaṭal form of the verb, also called perfectum s Singular ix Subj Subject Suf Suffix Way Wayyiqṭōl form of the verb, also called imperfectum consecutivum WeQt Weqaṭal form of the verb, also called perfectum consecutivum Wey Weyiqṭōl form of the verb Yqt Yiqṭōl form of the verb, also called imperfectum x Chapter One Statement of the Problem The Lord bless you and He protect you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and He be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His face upon you and He give you peace. Num 6:24–25 1.1 Introduction The words of the Priestly Blessing are probably among the best known verses of the Hebrew Bible. Of course some passages may still be better known like the Decalogue (Exod 20:1–17), the Shema (Deut 6:4–9) and a verse like Gen 1:1. Because some religious communities, both Jewish and Christian, still use the Priestly Blessing in the liturgy, at least people from these communities are familiar with these words. But familiarity is no guarantee for understanding. Even if these words were self evident to the ancient Israelites, they are not for people living in the twenty first century. Korpel (1990) pointedly raised the question of what we are to understand by the shining of the face of the Lord (p. 2). And of course this question might as well be asked for the lifting of His face. In comparison to the expressions involving the face, the meaning of the other phrases in the Priestly Blessing, about blessing, protecting, being gra- cious, and giving peace, at first glance may seem to be more obvious. Indeed most people familiar with the Priestly Blessing may well have an idea of their meaning. But what exactly does it mean when Yhwh blesses, protects, is gracious and gives peace to someone? How are these concepts related? What do these concepts mean for the relationship between Yhwh and his people? And what does it mean for the priests to speak theses words? In other words: What is the theology behind the Priestly Blessing? 1 1.2 Research Question In this thesis an attempt will be made to partly answer these questions.
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