Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Tony Prete wrote:

> [...]
> The basic reason, I believe, was already mentioned by someone earlier: 
> R"'$iYT is a construct, so that it might be translated: "the beginning 
> of..." (it's the B: which is the preposition, added to the front of the 
> word "beginning")
>
> But the question remains: Why a construct? I think that the various 
> translations--and the NJPS (cited earlier by Irene Rienger) seems to have 
> succeeded the best--are efforts to answer that question. I suspect we 
> simply don't have a way of saying in English what the text says in Hebrew.

If REŠIYT was in construct, then we would not expect a finite verb to follow 
it. We would expect perhaps an infinitive of some sort. This is not what we 
have in the MT. We have a finite verb with a subject and two direct objects. 
As such, REŠIYT must be either a conjunction or
circumstance. Since it is prefixed with a preposition (B), which has not 
subsumed a definite article, we must understand the first word of Genesis as 
simply meaning, "At first".

We can then make two hypotheses:

(1) Since the objects of the verb BR' are the heavens and the earth, and 
since the text goes on to talk about how exactly God made these, it is 
possible that v1 is a summary statement of what follows. Thus the "creation" 
is not necessarily God making things ex nihilo, but God putting the
TOHU and BOHU into some kind of meaningful order and arrangement. As such, no 
statement is made about the actual creation of the primeval disorder. It is 
assumed to be there.

(2) Since the earth is already mentioned before God actually names it -- 
indeed before any ERETZ is visible --  the creation of the heavens and the 
*earth* is not the ordering of the primeval universe, but the actual creation 
ex nihilo of primeval matter. Thus, v1 is the first event of
creation, followed by other events which give order to the created disorder.

As you can see, you can legitimately argue for either creation ex nihilo or 
creation from preexistant matter from the text. The real question is how did 
the ancients understand the text? Certainly in NT times, a creation ex nihilo 
was understood (Heb 11:3). However, by this stage, much of
the mythological and primeval imagery which rears its head every now and then 
in the Hebrew Bible, was not recognised or was reinterpreted. Certainly we do 
find the imagery of YHWH or ELOHIM conquering the sea serpent 
(Rahab/Liwyatan/Tehom). As with most things, there were probably
numerous ideologies in antiquity so we just don't know.

Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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