Memoria e perdono nella Bibbia ebraica

In the Hebrew Bible the verb sālaḥ, «to remit, to condone», to which forgiveness is related, has a very limited use; so also kāfar, that in the qittel form means «to cover, to purify, to condone». Both of worship origin, in the LXX are translated by ἀφίημι, in legal-sacred sense. Various metaphorical expressions of equivalent meaning have been found to the side of these, in order to appoint the forgiveness: for example the verbs meaning «to be merciful» and «to forget».Between the latter ones, the phrase ʾal/lōʾ zāḵar, and the verbs nāšâ and šāḵaḥ, in their figurative use, take on the specific meaning of «forgiving», becoming synonymous of sālaḥ. Therefore, here the forgiveness is characterized by the forgetfulness, the perspective of which is the care about not remembering offences, giving again credit, and surpassing resentment. The examination of the MT passages in which the verbs of «forgetting» are found, and the comparison with the LXX and the VL, lead to understanding the reasons of this semantic choice and its importance within the historical-religious framework. In fact, in the Hebrew Bible the positive force of the forgiveness is caught. The oblivion of the fault sense, that anchors the sinner to the past, aims to qualify again his conscience, by freeing it from the memory weight and by opening to it the road for the future.