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  • From: Numberup AT worldnet.att.net
  • Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Gen 1:2
  • Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 12:31:56 -0700

Therefore, in his own translation , _The Five Books of Moses_ (Schocken, 1995), Everett Fox translates Genesis 1:2 as "rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters."  His footnote reads: "Rushing-spirit: Others, 'wind.'  The Hebrew word ruah can mean bothe 'spirit' and 'wind.'"

Again, I would think that an English _expression_ such as "active force," in the context, would be fitting.  It might not comprise the totality of meaning inherent in "ruach," but what single English word does?

Solomon Landers

Bearpecs AT aol.com wrote:
>From "People Today and the Jewish Bible:  From a Lecture Series"
Martin Buber (November 1926)
in:
_Scripture and Translation_
by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig
translated by Lawrence Rosenwald with Everett Fox
Indian University Press, 1994

pp. 15-16

What, however, does ruah mean?  Opinion has been divided from the beginning
betyween "wind" -- whether a wind from G-d or a wind called "G-dwind" on the
basis of its force -- and "spirit" -- whether *the* spirit of G-d or *a*
spirit of G-d.  Luther, keeping the quesiton always in motion, has first
"wind" and then "spirit."  Both interpretations rest on the notion that we
have to choose between them.  But we do not.  The dynamic meaning of ruah,
which alone enables us to comprehend the passage -- a passage, by the way,
which even radical source critics have judged "very old" (Gunkel) and "very
ancient (Procksch) -- is the meaning of a "breathing," a "blowing," a
"surging," a "rushing."  ...............................................




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