Hebrew Terminology and Translation
The construction "Holy of Holies" is a literal translation of a Hebrew idiom which is intended to express a superlative. Examples of similar constructions are "servant of servants" (Gen 9:25), "Sabbath of sabbaths" (Ex 31:15), "God of gods" (Deut 10:17), "Vanity of vanities" (Eccl 1:2) or "Song of songs" (Song of Songs 1:1).
In the Authorized King James Version, "Holy of Holies" is always translated as "Most Holy Place". This is in keeping with the intention of the Hebrew idiom to express the utmost degree of holiness. The King James Version of the Bible has been in existence for over four hundred years. For most of that time, it was a primary reference in much of the English speaking world for information about Judaism. Thus, the name "Most Holy Place" was used to refer to the "Holy of Holies" in many English documents.
A related term is the debir (דְּבִיר) transliterated in the Septuagint as dabir (δαβιρ), which either means the back (i.e. western) part of the Sanctuary, or derives from the verb stem D-V-R, "to speak", justifying the translation in the Latin Vulgate as oraculum, from which the traditional English translation "oracle" (KJV, 1611) comes.
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Famous quotes containing the words hebrew and/or translation:
“Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”
—Bible: Hebrew Deuteronomy, 8:3.
Jesus recalls these words in Matthew 4:4.
“Whilst Marx turned the Hegelian dialectic outwards, making it an instrument with which he could interpret the facts of history and so arrive at an objective science which insists on the translation of theory into action, Kierkegaard, on the other hand, turned the same instruments inwards, for the examination of his own soul or psychology, arriving at a subjective philosophy which involved him in the deepest pessimism and despair of action.”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)