From the Pursuer’s Proof of the cross-examination held on Wednesday, November 24, 1954, p. 7, paragraphs A-B. Examining Fred W. Franz, vice-president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and sent as representative of the Society and the Translation Comm.
Q: Have you also made yourself familiar with Hebrew?
A: (Franz) Yes.
Q: So that you have a substantion linguistic apparatus at your command?
A: Yes, for use in my biblical work.
Q: I think you are able to read and follow the Bible in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French?
A: Yes.
—-LATER, DURING THE SAME CROSS-EXAMINATION:
Q: You, yourself, read and speak Hebrew, do you?
A: I do not speak Hebrew.
Q: You do not?
A: No.
Q: Can you, yourself, translate that into Hebrew?
A: Which:
Q: That fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis?
A: You mean here?
Q: Yes.
A: No.
We asked a Hebrew teacher at Biola College/Talbot Theological Seminary if the fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis was a particularly difficult verse to translate. After all, the pursuer’s question would hardly have been fair if it were the hardest verse in the Old Testament to translate. The professor said that he would never pass a first-year Hebrew student who could not translate that verse.
