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b-hebrew - Re: Is R)$YT even a "time" word?

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  • From: "Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Is R)$YT even a "time" word?
  • Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 20:11:17 +0100


>> >I have never bought the whole Tiamat/Tehom parallel
>> >and all that. In any such situation, one can look at the similarities
>> >and assume they are derived from each other,
>>
>> We are not necessarily deriving one from the other.
>> The important information we get is the missing
>> details in Genesis when we look at the Enuma Elish.
>
>The notion that Enuma Elish supplies "missing details in Genesis" is
>another assumption that I don't buy.

Do you understand what Genesis 1:2 is about from the
text itself? Can you tell me why tehom is mentioned
in the text? Can you tell from the text why the wind
is present? A cursory reading of the Enuma Elisha
answers all these questions. If you allow that the
two accounts are related, one needs to face how they
are related: when one version is apparently cryptic
and the other is not, it is common to elucidate the
one with the other.

>To show this, a definitive and
>demonstrable connection between the two in terms of where they
>came from, how they developed, how they diverged and how
>particular details came to be included or excluded from one or the
>other, must be shown.

This sounds like you want something you'd never ask
for the gospels. You can't show a definitive and
demonstrable connection between them, yet I'd bet
you are to some degree a supporter of something like
a two document theory or analogous approach.

>We can't simply assume that one has
>"missing details" and the other doesn't.

We need to read the stories to see what they say. If
you understand Gen 1:2 perfectly without any help
then I think you have more knowledge on the verse
than most other people.

>Again, when a statement
>like this is made in the context of what we know regarding the two
>stories, it is pure speculation, nothing more.

This just means that you don't agree with the
connextion I make through the common material, a
connection which seem to me to be far beyond
speculation. Speculation is to say that br'$yt
means "in the beginning of time", ie import
meaning.

>You're welcome to
>assume this sort of connection, but I don't think you'll ever be able to
>provide definitive evidence for it. So speculate away, just don't
>expect the speculation to be taken as anything more than that.

You want evidence that you can't provide for many
of the accepted positions in normative Christianity.
You want too much, and probably cannot face your
own criteria.


Ian










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