Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lee R. Martin" <lmartin AT vol.com>]

Liz Fried wrote:

> Dear Lee,

> This whole accession year is the bereshit of his reign.  Jer. 28:1 may be a
> conflation of two texts, or the scribe's eye may have jumped or something. 
> It is
> best to emmend with the LXX.--

Dear Liz,
I am aware of the possible emendations.  I probably should have used Jer. 
26:1 or 27:1
or 49:34, where these problems do not exist, and where the text is translated 
"Soon
after X began to reign" by the TEV and "early in the reign" by the NIV.  I 
hope you
are you suggesting that when the text says "At the beginning of  the reign of
Zedekiah..." it means either "before he reigned" or "at the exact moment he 
began to
reign"?  I think not.  If the whole accession year is the "beginning" then my 
point
still stands.  If  Zedekiah had reigned 5 minutes before God spoke to 
Jeremiah, then
"beginning" does necessarily not mean what many take it to mean in Gen. 1. So 
why
shouldn't we translate Gen. 1:1 as: "*Soon after* God created/began to create 
the
heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void and darkness was on 
the face of
the deep, and the spirit of God was moving ..."?  I cannot see how it means 
"*Before*
God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and 
void ...."
as many seem to be taking it.


Lee R. Martin
Pastor, Prospect Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee
Instructor in Hebrew and Old Testament
Church of God Theological Seminary
http://earth.vol.com/~lmartin/