Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <LBR AT sprynet.com>]

On 26 Oct 98, at 22:45, Bryan Rocine wrote:

> B-Hebrewers,
> 
> What do you think of Everett Fox's translation of Gen 1:1-8?
> 
> 1  At the beginning of God's creating of the heavens and the earth,

This reflects the well-known grammatical comment by the 
traditional Jewish commentator Rashi.  To me, a definite 
improvement over "In the beginning God created..."

> 2  when the earth was wild and waste,
> darkness over the face of the Ocean,
> rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters--
> 
> 3  God said: Let there be light!  And there was light.
> 4  God saw the light: that it was good.
> God separated the light from the darkeness.
> 5  God called the light: Day! and the darkness he called: Night!
> There was setting, there was dawning: one day.

Eliminating all the "ands" is an improvement; but I'm 
curious to know why he didn't stick with evening and 
morning.

 
> 6  God said:
> Let there be a dome amid the waters,
> and let it separate waters from waters!
> 7  God made the dome
> and separated the waters that were below the dome from the waters that
> were above the dome. It was so. 8  God called the dome: Heaven! There was
> setting, there was dawning: second day.

Similarly for "dome" for RaQiYa(


Lewis Reich
LBR AT sprynet.com