Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

Ian, if you really want to talk about only verse 1, independent of its
context on the basis that it is a self-standing unit, why did you offer
to Paul the following translations of verses 1-3 in which verse 1 is
syntactically linked to verse 2? If verse 1 is not a separate unit, it
can only be understood in its context, which is what I was discussing.
But I am not going to do so any more.

Your proposed renderings, which are not my preference but not
impossible:

At the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the 
earth, when the earth was without form and empty, and 
darkness over the deep, and as the wind of God hovered 
on the waters, God said, "Let there be light"...

or 

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the 
earth, when the earth was without form and empty, and 
darkness over the deep, and as the wind of God hovered 
on the waters, God said, "Let there be light"...

Peter Kirk

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ian Hutchesson [mailto:mc2499 AT mclink.it]
> Sent: 15 March 2002 00:40
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: bereshit
> 
> >Ian, you are making me so angry by continuing to contradict yourself
and
> >accuse me falsely that I am in danger of breaking my keyboard by
typing
> >so hard. I think I had better drop this thread before I burst too
many
> >blood vessels.
> 
> I have not contradicted myself. I have merely
> attempted to get the conversation on track.
> TO do so, I was willing to stop talking about
> Gen 1:2 until we had dealt with Gen 1:1, for
> the former was secondary. Saying that I have
> contradicted myself is an easy escape clause
> for you not dealing with things.
> 
> I have proposed a simple argument to understand
> the relationship between br'$yt and the rest of
> the verse and discourse. You simply wanted to
> talk about something else. Drop your
> participation in the subject, if you really
> don't want to talk about the significance of
> br'$yt.
> 
> I don't really understand your behaviour here
> at all. I have consistently talked of br'$yt as
> the focus of my interest. That is the subject
> line. When asked to talk about it you simply
> chose not to and attempted to maintain a
> conversation about Gen 1:2, which I had said
> numerous times was secondary, giving two
> possible approaches to it so that you could see
> that it wasn't a major concern. I attempted to
> get back to what I considered was the subject,
> ie br'$yt.
> 
> How else am I to interpret your not wanting to
> talk about the subject?
> 
> What have you got against talking about br'$yt?
> 
> 
> Ian
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---
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