Michael Abernathy wrote:The Hbrew Bible different forms of ראה for see, show or appear. I was probably reading too much into it when I remembered that the Niphal, passive, would be translated "appear."
Sincerely,
Michael Abernathy
When I was a student of biblical Hebrew (between Fall 2000 and Spring 2002), I remember that the grammar we used (Seow's
A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew) gave vocabulary by root and then mentioned the
binyan a verb would appear in. For example, we were given the root ראה and then told that it meant "saw" (I don't remember exactly how he listed it, in the present or past) and that in the
niphal it meant "appeared" or "was seen." The student was supposed to guess exactly at the form in the relevant
binyan (in this case, רָאָה versus נִרְאָה).
Having become proficient in spoken Hebrew, I would
never force that system on a Hebrew student. It is counter-intuitive and entirely too difficult. We should be teaching them that נִרְאָה means "appeared" rather than that "רָאָה in the niphal" means "appeared." Now that I look back, I see how much that got in the way of my learning (not that I didn't learn Hebrew - but I didn't learn to express myself in Hebrew because I was always trying to convert roots into different binyanim!).
But, again, I don't see how נראה would carry any meaning of taking on a burden of accusations. The book of Hebrews is written in such good Greek that I wouldn't even search for a Hebrew meaning underlying
any of it. I would compare it to the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew Bible for meaning drawn from the Old Testament. Were you thinking of something more specific here?
Jason A. Hare
Rehovot, Israel