Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

I haven't been following this thread at all,
so I hope I'm not repeating stuff. But wasn't all this
discussed already years ago on this list? Anyway,
according to Rashi, it is in the construct state,
which is good enough for me, frankly.
He offers as proof the fact that every other occurence is also
in the construct state. 
According to Rashi, God's first creative act is the creation of light.
He states the bible does not talk about what went on before, but
at the beginning of God's creating the sky and land, the land was
at that time an uninhabitabed wilderness, and darkness and
waters covered the earth, and a wind from God went up and 
down over the water. Rashi points out that when clauses begin
with a noun, and are SVO, then they should be translated as in
the pluperfect. They express an action that occurs at that time or
before that time.
But maybe all this has been said, if so I apologize.
Liz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Polycarp66 AT aol.com [mailto:Polycarp66 AT aol.com]
> Sent: Sat, March 16, 2002 11:41 PM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: bereshit and mereshit.
> 
> 
> 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
> 
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