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  • From: ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben and Jo Crick)
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew]Genesis 1:5, 8, 13...
  • Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 00:27:36 +0100

On Tue 30 Sep 2003 (17:11:10), acantley AT meer.net wrote:
> KJV Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
> called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
>
> Could this verse possibly be translated as:
> Genesis 1:5 "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
> Night. And the evening and the morning FOLLOWED the first day"?

Dear Al,

The First Day began when God commanded "Let there be Light", and there was
light. The second day did not begin until light dawned the following morning.
So, there was evening and morning, and that was the end of Day One and the
beginning of Day Two. Keil & Delitzsch, /The Pentateuch/, vol 1, reprint
Wm B Eerdmans, Grand Rapids MI, pp 48-52, have a long discussion, too long
to copy here.

The Days of Creation are not reckoned from evening to evening, but from
morning (first light) to morning. A Day is 24 hours, a hHMERONUKTION in
Greek. The time from evening to morning does not comprise one Day, but
one Night. In Daniel 8:14 we have `eReB BoQeR for "days" (2,300 of them with
the singular `eReB BoQeR). But this does not equal a Greek NUCQHMERON,
because one evening does not make a night, nor does one morning make a day,
point out K&D.

The Jewish custom of reckoning a Day from evening to evening comes not from
Genesis 1:5, etc, but from Leviticus 23:32. This is probably because the
Sabbath starts when one knocks off from work *in the evening*, at the end of
the sixth working day of the week.

K&D dismiss your suggested translation "And the evening and the morning
FOLLOWED the first day" as "at variance with the grammar, as well as with
actual fact" (page 51). WaY:HiY-`eReB WaY:HiY BoQeR YoWM 'eXaD "And there was
evening and there was morning one day"; or, "And evening was, and morning
was,
one day".

Do get hold of K&D and read it for yourself.

Shalom
Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick BA CF, and Mrs Joanna (Goodwin) Crick
<ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm






  • Re: [b-hebrew]Genesis 1:5, 8, 13..., Ben and Jo Crick, 09/30/2003

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