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  • From: Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Genesis 1:1: independ/subord... Recent comments
  • Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 16:36:01 +0100


Sorry, but where were comments like the ones below when Peter wrote the
following paragraph?

>PK: Unfortunately it is those newer translations rather than the older
>ones which are incorrect. We have B:R")$IYT BFRF) ):ELOHIYM... which
>is a clear example of a temporal phrase with B:- and a time noun
>followed by a finite QATAL verb, meaning "In the beginning God
>created.." or perhaps "In the beginning God had created...".

Comment 1:

It is not uncommon for a verb to be bound to a construct noun forming a
subordinate clause.

Comment 2:

>The Jewish Publication Society translation of 1962 (and, I believe, a more
>recent version) translated Gen 1:1-2 as : (1) When God began to create
>the heaven and the earth - (2) the earth being unformed and void, with
>darkness over the surface of the deep. It footnoted create and the note
>read "Or 'In the beginning God created'". I believe that Fox's new
>translation is similar, but do not have a copy at hand.
>
>The translation I'm describing would have it as a gerund or an infinitive -
>"when God began to create", or "in the beginning of God's creating".
>
>The significance of the necessary ending of "of" is that the first verse
>cannot stand alone as a single sentence, but is really an introductory
>phrase; it is not "In the beginning (or "at first") God created the heaven
>and the earth" but "in the beginning of God's creating the heaven and the
>earth."


Ian





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