Sargon
Unfortunately I have less time on my hands so hope you'll forgive if I do a bit of cutting and pasting. I did some research on this many years ago and was impressed then at the lengths to which the translators went to ensure accuracy.
*** bf 13-14 2 Babylon Arises ***
In speaking of this difference of understanding, The Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 19 (eleventh edition), page 703, says under Nimrod:
“The ‘mighty hunter before Yahweh’ has been variously explained as ‘a divinely great hunter’ (Spurrell); ‘a hunter in defiance of Yahweh’ (Holzinger); ‘a hunter with the help of Yahweh’ or ‘of some deity whose name has been replaced by Yahweh’ (Gunkel, Genesis, page 82).”
The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 9, edition of 1909, page 309, says that Nimrod, in the writings of the Jewish rabbis, “is the prototype of a rebellious people, his name being interpreted as ‘he who made all the people rebellious against God.’”
In his work entitled “The Book of Beginnings,” the author, Alexander Marlowe, renders Genesis 10:8-10 as follows: “And Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty tyrant in the land. He was a terrible subjugator, defiant before the face of Jehovah: wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the giant hunter, presumptuous in the place of Jehovah. And the original seats of his empire were Babylon, and Erec, and Acad and Kalneh in the land of Shinar.”
In the expression “before Jehovah” the word before is the translation of the Hebrew preposition liphnei. Regarding this important preposition the religious Cyclopædia by M’Clintock and Strong, Volume 7, edition of 1894, page 109, says:
The preposition [liphnei] has often, as [Lexicographer] Gesenius admits, a hostile sense—in front of, for the purpose of opposing (Numbers 16:2; 1 Chronicles 14:8; 2 Chronicles 14:10); and the Septuagint gives it such a sense in the verse under consideration—[enantion Kuriou]—“against the Lord.” The [Jewish] Targums and [historian] Josephus give the preposition this hostile meaning. The context also inclines us to it. That the mighty hunting was not confined to the chase is apparent from its close connection with the building of eight cities. . . . What Nimrod did in the chase as a hunter was the earlier token of what he achieved as a conqueror. For hunting and heroism were of old specially and naturally associated, . . . The Assyrian monuments also picture many feats in hunting, and the word is often employed to denote campaigning. . . . The meaning then will be, that Nimrod was the first after the flood to found a kingdom, to unite the fragments of scattered patriarchal rule, and consolidate them under himself as sole head and master; and all this in defiance of Jehovah, for it was the violent intrusion of Hamitic power into a Shemitic territory.
*** w64 5/15 312 United Rebellion Against God Breaks Down ***
The Jerusalem Targum, a Jewish interpretative translation of the Bible, says of Nimrod: “He was powerful in hunting and in wickedness before the Lord, for he was a hunter of the sons of men, and he said to them, ‘Depart from the judgment of the Lord, and adhere to the judgment of Nimrod!’”
Both the Targum of Jonathan and the historian Flavius Josephus agree with this, Josephus saying: “He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, . . . but to believe that it was their own courage that procured their happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, . . . Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower.”—Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, chapter 4, paragraphs 2, 3, translation by Wm. Whiston, 1737 C.E., revised by Dr. Sam. Burder.
Earnest
"Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!" - Rev. Charles Dodgson.
