The Meaning of "Ken" (Added Information)

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---JAlw@aol.com wrote:
[snip Farrel]


> Joe Alward:

> 

> I still need to understand why "ken" in blood plague has to imply

that the

> magicians accomplished anything with the rod-waving.  The author

uses "ken" in

> the lice story, but it clearly only means that the magicians waved

their rod

> just the way Aaron did, but no lice came up from the earth.  In the

frogs

> story, the author uses "ken" to mean that the magicians waved their

hands over

> the waters, then he tells us that the magicians succeeded in

bringing up

> frogs.  In the blood plague story, the author tells us that the

magicians did

> "ken" what Aaron did (wave his rod over the waters), but he doesn't

tell us

> what happened.  Aren't we free to guess, based on context, what

happened?  Why

> do we have to assume that ANYTHING happened when the magicians "did

so", if

> all that "did so" means is "waved their rods like Aaron did"?

> 

> Evidently nobody has an answer to this question, because I've asked it

> repeatedly, but nobody has responded.  Isn't it a good question?

> 


BRYCE
     I haven't been following this thread very closely lately, but it
does seem like a good question to me.  The context in the lice story
would seem to imply that "ken" refers to the handwaving, and not the
copying of the miracle.  The usage appears similar in the blood story,
with the exception that there isn't any statement afterwards that says
whether it worked or not.  Two reasons why I still presume that (in
the world of the author's mind) the plague was duplicated by the
Egyptians:

     1)  It follows the pattern suggested in the story of the
magicians' slow slide into whimpering impotence.

     2)  The author would have probably recorded the failure if he
didn't believe the magicians were successful.

     While there are no definite statements of success after "the
magicians so by their enchantments," I think that we should assume the
author was claiming success unless he mentions the magicians' failure.

     Anyways, that's the best I can come up with.

==
Bryce Anderson
http://members.tripod.com/~Idafab/index.html

Eagles can soar, but weasels don't get 
sucked into jet engines.

Isn't Disney World a people trap run by a mouse?
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