Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT globalfreeway.com.au>]

Liz wrote:

| I'd like to point out (tho no one has disputed this as yet) that the land
| and sea were already there prior to the beginning of God's creative
| activity.
| The phrase "veha(aretz hayita tohu ve bohu" is in the pluperfect.
| In narrative Hebrew, if the verb comes before the subject (VSO), the
| narration is moved along. If the subject comes first (SVO), then the action
| of that clause comes *before*
| the action of the main clause. This was pointed out by Rashi and also
| Gesenius.
| The Hebrew Bible does not have creatio ex nihilo.

I'd agree with everything but the last statement. I think the text is 
ambiguous about
"what" God created the world and sky with. It simply doesn't say. It just 
says that he
created them and that they'd been terribly chaotic and insubstantial. He then 
proceeds to
give good order to the chaos, and then places man over the new order. I don't 
think Gen 1
gives evidence either pro or contra creatio ex nihilo. It's not interested in 
answering
that question, even in passing.

|
| Also, I think the use of the phrase in Jeremiah indicates that "unpopulated"
| is a better translation of tohu ve bohu than "unformed and void."

To an extent, yes. Unpopulated because of the sheer chaos of the environment 
in which no
one could live. The two ideas (unpopulated and chaotic) go together.

Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
- Anglican Chaplaincy, UNSW;
- Southern Cross College,
Sydney, Australia
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