Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 3/26/2002 2:39:28 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
Peter_Kirk AT sil.org writes:

>The LXX translators clearly understood BERESHIT as EN ARCHi, "in the
>beginning", in an absolute sense. It is possible that the aorist has an
>inceptive sense here, so "In the beginning God began to create the
>heavens and the earth". I have no quarrel with that understanding of the
>Greek, though I doubt if the Hebrew can mean that. But the Greek does
>not mean "In the beginning of God's creating...", the sentence structure
>is quite different and EN ARCHi is absolute and unqualified.
_________________

Yes, but the LXX is not the final arbiter of what the author intended.  The 
LXX has been found in error (or clueless) in more than one case.

GfSomsel