Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ken Litwak <kdlitwak AT concentric.net>]

Since Lloyd pointed this direction, I'd like to move to Genesis
and know what syntactical support there is for understanding this
specific text to say that God made the heavens and earth out of
pre-existing chaos.  I have never noticed that reading it in Hebrew,
Greek or English.  Its alleged parallel to other ANE texts should not
influence our reading because this alleged parallel is the point at
issue.*  This is not like the various creation tales I'm accustomed to
elsewhere, with the earth being made from part of a god, or from the
ejaculation of a god.  Gen 1:1 simply states that God created the
heavens and the earth.  Is there something grammatically that makes 1:2
antecedent in time to 1:1 and does the language of 1:2 really mean
"chaos"?  I haven't checked every single work on my shelves but I've
never seen anything that demonstrates such a position from the grammar.  

Ken Litwak
University of Bristol
Bristol, England

*This is a footnote because it is not germane to Hebrew as such.  If we
are to believe that Genesis is simply dependent upon other AN stories,
should be believe, by analogy, that R.K. Harrison argued for Mosaic
authorship of the Pentateuch in direct dependence upon O. Eissfeldt.  It
is inconceivable to me that Genesis 1-2, which diametrically opposes the
perspective of any other ANE creation account I've read, could simply be
dependent upon it.   Arguing that there is direct dependence while
recognizing conflicting perspectives would seem to create more problems
than it solves.