H6446

• {"n":"Genesis 37:3","s":"A coat of many colours. Modern scholarship increasingly favors a long-sleeved robe, not a rainbow garment.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-37-3","r":"Genesis 37:3","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"The King James reads coat of many colours, following the Septuagint and Vulgate's variegated. Modern versions increasingly read a long robe with sleeves or an ornamented robe, following medieval and modern Hebraists who connect passim to pas, the palm of the hand or sole of the foot, suggesting a garment reaching to the hands and feet rather than one displaying colors."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"Picture a phrase translators have guessed at for two thousand years without ever finding a second example to confirm the guess. That is ketonet passim. The colorful coat is a famous, beloved image; it may also simply be wrong."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Passim occurs in this exact phrase only twice in the Hebrew Bible, here and at 2 Samuel 13:18-19 describing the royal garment worn by unmarried princesses, including Tamar, before her own assault. Neither occurrence confirms colors; the connection to pas, palm or sole, suggests a garment with long sleeves and a long hem, marking its wearer as someone who does not do manual labor, a mark of privileged status rather than a rainbow of dyed cloth."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English many colours is vivid, specific, and has anchored centuries of art and storytelling, but the Hebrew phrase behind it is genuinely uncertain, and the strongest linguistic evidence, its only other biblical occurrence describing royal children's clothing, points toward a long, sleeved, privileged garment rather than a colorful one."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"A translation tradition this old and this beloved can still rest on a guess. Before trusting a famous image, check whether the Hebrew phrase behind it has a confirmed meaning or only an inherited one, especially when the word recurs elsewhere in a context that points a different direction."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Coat of many colours preserves the image nearly every reader already carries and is not disprovable outright. A long robe with sleeves better fits the word's only other biblical occurrence and its likely connection to pas, and shifts the story's point from bright dye to Joseph being marked as exempt from a laborer's life, a distinction his brothers, who did that labor, would have resented just as sharply."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05db\u05b0\u05bc\u05ea\u05b9\u05e0\u05b6\u05ea \u05e4\u05b7\u05bc\u05e1\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd ketonet passim \u00b7 H3801 + H6446"}],"src":["The only other occurrence, describing royal children's clothing: 2 Samuel 13:18-19","Proposed connection to pas, palm\/sole, suggesting long sleeves and hem: Rabbi David Kimhi and modern lexicons","Septuagint poikilos, variegated, behind the Vulgate and King James rendering"]}