Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <brocine AT earthlink.net>]

Hi Peter,

Maybe not so rare.  Maybe just an understanding of the qatal
form and qatal clauses that is not mainstream thinking
nowadays.  See my note to Liz.  I am not sure what you mean
by saying that vayyo'mer is not sentence initial.  I would
take the qatal clause as an independent sentence, like a
noun clause.  I would express the notions of the  Gen 1
clauses as follows:

a. It was in the beginning that God was Creator of the
heavens and the earth.

b.  But the earth had become tohu and bohu.

c.  At the time, darkness was on the surface of the deep.

d.  At the time, the Spirit of Elohim was hovering above the
surface of the waters.

e.  Then God said...

you wrote:
> Maybe I was misled by Liz interpreting Rashi this way. So
Rashi's
> interpretation depends on a very rare grammatical
construction rather than a
> textual emendation, plus the even rarer
non-sentence-initial WAYYIQTOL in
> verse 3.
>
> Peter Kirk


Shalom,
Bryan


B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
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