Biblical Windows

Abstract

This paper examines different translations of the Bible from Hebrew, a Semitic language, into Indo-European languages, using the methodology of root semantics and focusing on the Hebrew terms translated into English as “window”. Analysing the semantics of the roots of the Hebrew terms, we discover that in addition to the concept of “window” as an opening in a wall, they also have varying significations of whiteness, light, prophecy, purity, judgment, cleansing, and blessing. All the Hebrew terms are traversed by the idea of light and purity, and also display different transformations of the idea of light, meanings which are lost in translation into Indo-European languages. The theoretical implication is that there are in Biblical Hebrew meanings that never pass to the Indo-European translations, because the Hebrew language is the vehicle of a worldview totally different from that of the Indo-European languages.