H1288

• {"n":"Genesis 12:3","s":"In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Passive, or reflexive: blessed through you, or blessing themselves by your name.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-12-3","r":"Genesis 12:3","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every English version reads a passive sense, shall be blessed, following the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Targums, and this is the reading Paul follows in Galatians 3:8, applying it to the gospel reaching the nations through Christ."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English **he was blessed** is passive, something done to him. English **he blessed himself** is reflexive, something he does using himself as the reference point, the way people still say **as rich as Rockefeller** without Rockefeller doing anything for them personally. Hebrew's one verb form here could be doing either job."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"The niphal stem of barakh here can carry a passive sense, will be blessed, or, as niphal sometimes does, a reflexive-reciprocal sense, will bless themselves or one another. When the same promise recurs at Genesis 22:18 and 26:4, it switches to the hitpael stem, which leans more clearly reflexive, nations invoking Abraham's name as a byword for blessing, you have done well, like Abraham, rather than nations passively receiving blessing through him."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English must choose one grammatical voice, passive or reflexive, and commit to it in translation, while Hebrew's niphal here sits genuinely between the two senses in a way no single English verb form preserves, so a reader cannot see that the promise's later restatements shift toward the more clearly reflexive stem."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a Hebrew verb stem is capable of more than one voice, check whether the same promise or phrase recurs elsewhere in a different stem. A later restatement in a less ambiguous form, as with the hitpael at 22:18 and 26:4, is real evidence for how an earlier ambiguous form might have been heard."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"The passive reading, blessed through Abraham as an active channel, is the traditional and Pauline reading and fits the covenant's forward momentum toward a Messiah. The reflexive reading, nations blessing themselves by invoking Abraham's name, fits the hitpael restatements later in Genesis and does not require Abraham to be an active agent of anyone else's blessing, only a byword for it."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d5\u05b0\u05e0\u05b4\u05d1\u05b0\u05e8\u05b0\u05db\u05d5\u05bc venivrechu (\u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e8\u05b7\u05da\u05b0 barakh, niphal) \u00b7 H1288"}],"src":["The same promise in the hitpael stem: Genesis 22:18; 26:4","Paul's passive reading in Galatians 3:8","Septuagint, Vulgate, and Targums all translate with a passive sense"]}