Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JP vd Giessen (FOL)" <janpieter AT giessen.fol.nl>]

Hello all,

Peter wrote "viewed from a viewpoint on earth" but no human was on Earth the
first days. So can we translate "bereshit" (Gen 1:1) as "in a beginning", i.e.
God was the only One Who could observe His creation? 

Jan Pieter van de Giessen

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:47:34 +0200, Yigal Levin wrote
> Hi Peter,
> 
> This might be getting out of bounds for this list, but that was my 
> point exactly. Understanding the word "day" in the Creation story in 
> any literal sense does not work. Once you have to invent "clouds 
> that hid the sun", you're already adding elements that are not in 
> the text. This is good midrash, but certainly not a literal 
> understanding of the text.
> 
> Yigal
> 
<snip>
>> One rather obvious suggestion is that the creation is viewed from a
>> viewpoint on earth. At first, perhaps, the earth was covered by clouds
>> (and geologists agree with this) so that the sun would not have been
>> visible, but there would still have been day and night. Only later, on the
>> third "day", the clouds cleared and the sun, moon and stars became
>> visible.
>