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b-hebrew - Re[2]: SV: Gilgamesh and Creation

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  • From: "Peter Kirk"<peter_kirk AT sil.org>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re[2]: SV: Gilgamesh and Creation
  • Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 23:26:19 -0500


In the earlier thread I argued on the basis of Hebrew grammar and
Hebrew grammar alone for the "traditional" translation of Genesis 1:1.
The fact that many generations of Christian (and Jewish) scholars have
understood the verse in that way does not make it wrong! Any of the
other proposed translations involve finding in this verse a
syntactical structure which (as far as I know, and no-one has offered
counter-examples) occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible: a
prepositional temporal phrase forming a complete clause in itself,
with no preceding verb and separated from the following clause by a
WAW which is not part of a WAYYIQTOL verb form. If anyone can provide
any other examples of this construction in the Hebrew Bible, please
let me know.

What was the point about "Miss Wisdom" in Proverbs? I hope she was
actually Mrs Wisdom, as she had children (8:32). Yes, she was created
as, or at, the beginning of YHWH's work of creation [YHWH QFNFNIY
R")$IYT D.ARK.OW] (8:22), at a time when there were no earth (8:23),
heavens (8:24), or even depths [T.:HOMOWT] (8:24). So there was not
much there when God started, not even the chaotic deep of Genesis 1:2.
Sounds like creation ex nihilo to me, with wisdom being the first
created thing, followed by the things mentioned in Genesis 1:1-2.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: SV: Gilgamesh
Author: <npl AT teol.ku.dk> at Internet
Date: 18/01/2000 15:28

<snip>

Finally, how can Christian doctrine live with any other translation
of Gen 1:1 than the approved one? So which translation is the exclusive one,
after all.

NPL





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