Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>Ian asserted that the Greek aorist in Genesis 1:1 LXX must be "inceptive
>aorist or overview" - see below. 

This is not accurate. I argued long ago for the 
inceptive, obviously because the creation of the 
heavens and the earth didn't just happen in v1 
-- if any is meant to have happened there at all. 
Another poster put forward the notion of the 
overview. I merely reported it.

>It seems that I am justified in my claim that this aorist is much more
>simply understood as a simple punctiliar aorist, one of a series of past
>events. 

It refers to a whole action (or series). The 
creation takes place through to v31.

>This leaves open the question of whether the following verses
>refer to subsequent states and events or give internal details of what
>is initially presented as an event with no internal structure: compare:
>"I went to the town today. It was a nice warm day. First I walked down
>the road, then I caught the bus..." Perhaps this is what Ian meant by
>"overview", and this is certainly a possible interpretation of both the
>Hebrew and the Greek. But there is certainly no support in the Greek for
>the inceptive idea.

The overview concept, if I remember correctly, 
was that the creation is actually outlined in 
v3 and following while v1 gives the overview 
of the story which follows.


Ian