Biblical Hebrew Forum

["somi" <somie AT home.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Lewis Reich <lewreich AT javanet.com>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 9:16 AM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Genesis 1:1: independent clause or subordinate phrase


The traditional Jewish commentator Rashi remarks on B.:R")$IYT, commenting,
if I recall correctly, on the occurrence in Jeremiah, but noting, in effect,
that it means not "in the beginning", but "in the beginning of", and thus
that the verb BfRfH, which would be appropriate if it were "in the
beginning", should be read BRoH - in the beginning of God' creation of the
heaven and earth, the earth was void and without form..."  as a couple of
new translations have rendered it.

Lewis Reich

I would be curious to know which translations render it this way.  Also, how
is it that BRH can be translated as a noun...it seems to be an obvious verb.
Thus, the addition of the genitival characteristic "of" at the end does not
seem to be given much weight when set against the context of the functioning
of the words in the rest of the sentence.  Those are my thougts, anyway.

Somi.