H7218

• {"n":"Genesis 40:13-19","s":"Pharaoh shall lift up thine head. For the butler, restored to office. For the baker, the same phrase, with one word added, means beheaded.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-40-13-19","r":"Genesis 40:13-19","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every version reads lift up thine head for the butler and either the same phrase or lift up thy head from off thee for the baker, correctly conveying restoration and execution respectively, though not every translation preserves how close the two phrasings actually sit to each other in Hebrew."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"Imagine telling two coworkers on the same day, **you're getting a promotion** and **you're getting let go**, using the exact same sentence structure for both, except one has a single extra word that flips the entire meaning. That is precisely what Joseph's Hebrew does here, and it is chilling specifically because both men hear almost the same words."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Yissa Pharaoh et rosh'cha, Pharaoh will lift up your head, is used of the butler's restoration to office at 40:13. The identical core phrase returns at 40:19 for the baker, with one addition, me'aleicha, from off you, turning restore your position into remove your head, the same idiom completing itself in two opposite directions depending on a single added phrase."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English restoration language, promoted, and execution language, beheaded, share no vocabulary at all, so the Hebrew's grim wordplay, one shared idiom branching into life and death, is completely invisible once each fate gets its own separate English phrase."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a narrator delivers parallel news to two characters using visibly similar phrasing, check how closely the underlying words actually match. Shared vocabulary delivering opposite outcomes is a real literary technique, not a translation coincidence, and it is often lost the moment each outcome gets its own natural-sounding English sentence."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Both outcomes are stated plainly by the narrative regardless of phrasing, so no version gets this wrong. What's worth noticing is the wordplay connecting them: the same lift up your head idiom branching into opposite fates, a genuine literary effect that separate, natural-sounding English sentences for each man cannot reproduce."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d9\u05b4\u05e9\u05b8\u05bc\u05c2\u05d0 \u05e4\u05b7\u05e8\u05b0\u05e2\u05b9\u05d4 \u05d0\u05b6\u05ea\u05be\u05e8\u05b9\u05d0\u05e9\u05b6\u05c1\u05da\u05b8 yissa Pharaoh et rosh'cha \u00b7 H5375 + H7218"}],"src":["The butler's restoration: Genesis 40:13, 20-21","The baker's execution using the same core idiom plus me'aleicha: Genesis 40:19, 22"]}
• {"n":"Psalm 118:22","s":"The head stone of the corner. Either the foundation stone set first, or the capstone set last at the very top.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=psalm-118-22","r":"Psalm 118:22","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Most versions read cornerstone, assuming the foundational sense. Some scholars argue for capstone or keystone instead, the crowning stone rather than the base, and note that the Greek phrase quoted in the New Testament, kephale gonias, head of the corner, preserves the same ambiguity rather than resolving it."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"English cornerstone today usually suggests a foundation, the first stone laid, everything built outward from it. But rosh, head, can just as naturally suggest the topmost position, a capstone or keystone placed last to complete an arch or wall. The Hebrew phrase does not clearly specify which end of the building process is meant."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Rosh pinnah, head of the corner, could describe either the first stone set at a building's foundation, establishing the entire structure's alignment, or the final stone set at the top of an arch or wall, completing rather than beginning the construction. Both are attested architectural uses of similar terminology, and scholars including R.T. France and Ulrich Luz have argued that Matthew's own quotation of this verse deliberately keeps both images alive rather than committing to one."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English cornerstone has settled almost entirely into the foundational sense in modern usage, a building's first and most important stone; readers rarely consider that the Hebrew, and the Greek that quotes it in the New Testament, may instead or additionally be picturing a capstone crowning a structure already built, a different and arguably more dramatic image of exaltation after rejection."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When an architectural metaphor is quoted repeatedly across Scripture, check whether the underlying term specifies which part of the building process is meant before assuming the modern default sense. Ancient building vocabulary did not always map onto modern architectural categories the way translation can imply."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Cornerstone, the foundational reading, pictures the rejected stone becoming the very basis the whole structure depends on from the ground up. Capstone or keystone, the completion reading, pictures the rejected stone becoming the final, crowning piece that finishes and holds together a structure already otherwise built, arguably a more dramatic reversal from rejection to climactic honor."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05e8\u05b9\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1 \u05e4\u05b4\u05bc\u05e0\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4 rosh pinnah \u00b7 H7218 + H6438"}],"src":["Septuagint's kephale gonias preserving the same ambiguity","Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, and 1 Peter 2:7 all quoting this verse","R.T. France and Ulrich Luz on the deliberate double reading in Matthew's use"]}