In Hebrew, we often find the verb הָיָה (*hāyâ*) followed by the preposition ל prefixed to a noun used to indicate that **something was made into something** (i.q. Latin *est factum quiddam in quiddam*).

On the verb הָיָה, Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius wrote,<sup>1</sup>

[![Gesenius, הָיָה, p. 221][1]][1]

For example, in [Gen. 2:7][2], it is written: וַיְהִי הָאָדָם לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה (*wayhî hāʾādām lĕnepeš ḥayyâ*)—“and Adam became a living soul.” Since the preposition ל is commonly translated as “into,”<sup>2</sup> we English readers may wish to translate the phrase into English as “and Adam became **into** a living soul,” but of course, we need to accept that it is a Hebrew idiom that does not require such a literal translation into English. The idea is simply that Adam became a living soul. As you might expect, Jerome translated the Hebrew into Latin as *et factus est homo **in** animam viventem*.

Yet, Jerome did not always maintain the same rigid syntax elsewhere. For example, in his translation of [Num. 26:10][3], he translated the Hebrew וַיִּהְיוּ לְנֵס (*wayyihyû lĕnēs*) into Latin as *et factum est grande miraculum*, thus omitting the preposition *in*.

Of course, rather than interpreting the Latin as “something became something” (essentially middle voice), it would be acceptable to interpret it as “something was made **into** something” (passive voice), and that may be what Jerome had in mind when he translated those phrases into Latin with the inclusion of the preposition *in*.

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##References

Gesenius, Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm. [*Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures.*][4] Trans. Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux. London: Bagster, 1860.

##Footnotes

<sup>1</sup> p. [221][5]<br>
<sup>2</sup> p. [422][6], ל, (A) (3)<br>


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/ZRQih.png
  [2]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis2:7&version=WLC;VULGATE;KJV "Gen. 2:7, WLC, Vul, KJV"
  [3]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers26:10&version=WLC;VULGATE;KJV "Num. 26:10, WLC, Vul, KJV"
  [4]: https://books.google.com/books?id=E80OAAAAQAAJ
  [5]: https://books.google.com/books?id=E80OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR221#v=onepage&q&f=true
  [6]: https://books.google.com/books?id=E80OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR422#v=onepage&q&f=true