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  • From: "Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: raqia encore (Peter)
  • Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 15:54:12 +0200


>Agreed that they are cognates. The important question is what IF ANY is
>the relationship between their meanings.

There is a clear relationship, but one needs to look
at what the Enuma Elish actually says, for Tiamat is
water.

>My point was simply that we
>should not presuppose that there is any relationship. I agree that we do
>this by looking at the way the terms are used. I don't see any close
>relationship between the Akkadian concept of a primordial monster and
>the consistent (including Genesis 1) Hebrew usage as the seas or ocean.

The normal Hebrew word for sea is ym. This doesn't
mean that there is no overlap between the two terms
for Job 28:14 has them in parallel. We find thwm
used in conjunction with $mym in Gen 49:25 and
Prov 8:27. This is specifically the case with the
sources of flood waters as well: springs of the
deep and windows of heaven.

Yet beyond the lexical, we should look at literary
sources in other parts of the biblical tradition --
which I have already done. In a passage on the
creation in Job 26, we find vv12-13:

"By his power he stilled the sea;
by his understanding he struck down Rahab.
By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent"

(And note the wind again!)

And Ps 74:12-17. Vv13-14:

"You divided the sea by your strength,
and broke the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters
You broke the heads of Leviathan to pieces..."

This material has been turned into apocalyptic in
Isa 27:1.

"On that day the Lord ...will punish Leviathan
the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting
serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is
in the sea."

From Ugarit KTU 1.5

"When you killed Lotan, the fleeing serpent,
Annihilated the twisting serpent,
The potentate with seven heads..."

From primal creation event to eschatological event!

There are a number of references in the Tanakh to
a battle between YHWH and the sea monster. In Ps 74
and Job 26 they are related to creation accounts. I
think it is hard to overlook the spill from them
onto the more abstracted version in Gen 1. As I
have previously said, Genesis knows more than what
it states. In this case, it doesn't state the
battle between YHWH and the sea, although it hints
at it by the cryptic reference to tehom and the
divine wind in Gen 1:2, but it is clear that it
knows it as it is found elsewhere in the Hebrew
tradition.


Ian






  • Re: raqia encore (Peter), Ian Hutchesson, 07/28/2002

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