H1350

• {"n":"Genesis 48:16","s":"The Angel which redeemed me from all evil. The first use of go'el, redeemer, in the Bible, applied to an angel.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-48-16","r":"Genesis 48:16","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every version reads redeemed or delivered, correctly conveying rescue, but without necessarily flagging that go'el is a specific legal-kinship term, not a general word for saving someone."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English redeemer sounds like a purely spiritual title. In Hebrew law, go'el names something concrete and legal: the nearest relative obligated to buy back a family member's lost land, freedom, or life, the way a modern next of kin might be legally bound to step in. Jacob is applying that specific, legal family role to the angel who has watched over him."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Go'el names the kinsman-redeemer throughout the Hebrew Bible, the nearest relative legally obligated to redeem land, avenge blood, or rescue a family member from servitude, most fully developed later in Ruth and in Levitical law. This is the word's first appearance in the Bible, and Jacob applies it not to God under His ordinary names but to the angel who has accompanied him, treating that figure as functioning in the specific legal role of nearest kinsman-protector."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English redeemed carries broad, largely religious connotations by now; it does not automatically evoke the specific legal picture of a family member obligated by kinship law to rescue you, so the precision of Jacob's word choice, applying a technical family-law term to an angel, is easy to miss."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a word's first biblical occurrence is doing specific legal or social work later developed at length elsewhere, as go'el is here, read that first occurrence in light of its fuller later development rather than assuming it is simply a poetic synonym for saved or helped."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Redeemed is the agreed sense in every version. The larger question, whether this angel is a created being functioning in a kinsman-redeemer role or something more, is a live theological debate the word's first, loaded appearance here helps generate rather than settle."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d4\u05b7\u05de\u05b7\u05bc\u05dc\u05b0\u05d0\u05b8\u05da\u05b0 \u05d4\u05b7\u05d2\u05b9\u05bc\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc hamal'ach hago'el (\u05d2\u05b8\u05bc\u05d0\u05b7\u05dc ga'al, redeem) \u00b7 H1350"}],"src":["go'el's fuller legal development: Ruth 4; Leviticus 25:25-49","This as the word's first occurrence in the Bible"]}
• {"n":"goel","s":"Kinsman-redeemer. A legal role English has no word for at all.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=goel","r":"Ruth 3:12","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Versions read kinsman, redeemer, kinsman-redeemer, or guardian-redeemer."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"**Next of kin.** English has a phrase for who the relative is and no word at all for what that relative is obliged to do."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"The goel is the nearest male relative, obliged to buy back sold family land, redeem a relative sold into slavery, avenge a killing, and marry a widow to raise an heir. It is a legal office, not a sentiment."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English has no equivalent institution, so every rendering is either a paraphrase or an invented compound."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"Where a word names an institution your culture does not have, no translation will work. Learn the institution."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Kinsman-redeemer and redeemer are the majority renderings; guardian-redeemer is the NIV's."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d2\u05b9\u05bc\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc goel \u00b7 H1350"}],"src":["The duties at Leviticus 25:25-55 and Numbers 35:19","Ruth 3-4 throughout","goel of God: Job 19:25; Isaiah 41:14"]}