Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Stabnow" <dstabno AT lifeway.com>]

On 2/1/01 at 10:45 Mike DePangher wrote:
> I have been wondering about the possibility of Gen 1:1 and Gen 2:4
> functioning as begin-title and end-title. Any thoughts? Cheers.


Gen 1:1 does not fit the definition that I am working with for a title. I
am investigating the form with "this" or "these" ( _ZH_ _ZWT_ _)LH_ ). Gen
2:4 does meet this criterion.

I have not completed the compilation of forms and variations, but I have
already seen that sometimes the begin-title occurs without the end-title
(e.g., Exod 21:1). (End-title without begin-title is rarer; see Num 1:44.)
Whether Gen 2:4 is a begin-title is bound up in the debate whether a
*toledoth* announces what follows or what precedes. If it announces what
follows, it would fit the form and function of a begin-title.

Incidentally, the *toledoth* as begin-title would also fulfill Binyai
Michael's theory: that a title announcing the content of a scroll appears
at the beginning of the scroll so that the title is visible when the scroll
is rolled up.

Dave Stabnow