Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 3/16/2002 9:08:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
moon AT sogang.ac.kr writes:

There have been some discussions on the list about whether
bereshit is in the absolute state or construct state.
Considering that reshit in  mereshit in Isa 46.10 is in the
absolute state, what are the arguments for the claim that
reshit in bereshit in Gen 1.1 is in the construct state
other than 
(1) all the occurrences of bereshit in HB other than
that in Gen 1.1 are in the construct state,
and (2) reshit in bereshit is an indefinite expression 
without definite article [If it were, we would have bareshit],
both of which do not seem to be conclusive.
_________________

Is it absolutely certain that this is in the absolute state, or are we 
perhaps dealing with an ellipsis?

GfSomsel