Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Steve Brailsford <Steve.Brailsford AT seagatesoftware.com>]

Bryan,
I really appreciated your pointing out the bias and outlook of Fox's
translation.  I was not aware of this.

Ian,
I would be careful when I used to word chaos.  Although the current
vernacular is appropriate, there is a distinction in the sciences, or
specifically Physics, between chaos and randomness.  Chaos infers an order
that is too complicated to ascertain.  Mathematically, randomness is defined
as NO order.  With that definition, I would assert that the appropriate word
to use would be "uncollected and random."  In any event, your separation of
three days of creation and then three days of ordering is instructive.

        Also, I found an interesting definition or chaos in Expedia.
Chaos, in one ancient Greek myth of creation, the dark, silent abyss from
which all things came into existence. According to the Theogony of Greek
poet Hesiod, Chaos generated Earth, from which arose the starry,
cloud-filled Heaven. In a later theory, Chaos was the formless matter from
which the cosmos, or harmonious order, was created.

I was wondering if they were trying to infer that the OT account was later
than the Greek mythos.

Steve Brailsford
NOBTS Student - Orlando Extension
Seagate Software
steve.brailsford AT seagatesoftware.com
(407) 531-7543


-----Original Message-----
From: Bryan Rocine [mailto:596547 AT ican.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 9:31 PM
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: Fox's first two days
> > 
> > >> 2  when the earth was wild and waste,
> > 
> > Though poetic, doesn't the "waste" take away from the meaning here? The
> > wildness gives cause for the events of the first three days: order is
> placed
> > over the chaos, while the following three days populates the emptiness.
> > Waste doesn't seem to be as apt as the AV "void" or "emptiness", does
it?
> > 
> > 
> > I think your obsevation on Fox's treatment of _tohu vabohu_ is an
important
> > case in point when considring the Fox translation.
> 
> The first series deals with the tohu reducing the chaos to order, the
other,
> filling the corresponding void. It would seem that the expression tohu
> vabohu was explicitly used to point to the structure imposed on the
creation.