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b-hebrew - Re: b-hebrew digest: December 08, 1999

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: Numberup AT worldnet.att.net
  • To: Bill Rea <cctr114 AT its.canterbury.ac.nz>
  • Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: b-hebrew digest: December 08, 1999
  • Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 17:25:36 -0800


I have Rashi both in hard copy and CD-ROM (Judaica Press). I looked over the
notes,
but did not see anything that specifically answers the question. Rashi
argues on
grammatical grounds that "bereshit" is a construct that requires the
rendition, "In
the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth, when..." Ibn Ezra
agrees
with Rashi on this, and so do a number of modern Jewish translators (JPS,
Everett Fox,
Artscroll, etc.) However, other Jewish scholars (e.g. Rabbeinu Bachya, the
Vilna
Gaon) disagree with Rashi here, and I am not sure that what Rashi says is the
last
word on the matter.

The Artscroll Tanach Series: Bereshis (Mesorah Publications, N.Y. and
Jerusalem) has a
nice overview of Rashi's comments on Genesis 1:1, 2.

Solomon Landers
Memra Institute for Biblical Research
http://www.memrain.org

Bill Rea wrote:

> Peter wrote:-
>
> >Unfortunately this is ungrammatical in English as a prepositional
> >phrase cannot be a complete sentence. I believe the same to be true in
> >Hebrew. I prefer a translation which is grammatical. Did Rashi answer
> >this point?
>
> We have a copy of Rashi's commentary in our library. If no one else can
> answer this I'm willing to go over and copy out what Rashi has to say
> and post it to the list.
>
> Bill Rea, Information Technology Services, University of Canterbury \_
> E-Mail b dot rea at its dot canterbury dot ac dot nz </
> New
> Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax 64-3-364-2332 /)
> Zealand
> Unix Systems Administrator (/'
>





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