Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 22/11/2005 03:33, Harold Holmyard wrote:

> B. M. Rocine wrote:
>  
(actually it was me quoting Alter)

>  
>
> > > > “When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was 
> > > > welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering 
> > > > over the waters, God said, ‘Let there be light’. And there was light.”
> > > >     
> > > >
> > > >        
> HH: "When God began to create the earth, and the earth then was welter 
> and waste, with darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over 
> the waters, God said, 'Let there be be light." And there was light."
>
>  
That is considerably better, except that presumably you omitted "heaven 
and" accidentally, although I still don't like "welter". Also "then" 
seems strange if this part is intended to be governed by "when". But why 
didn't Alter write this? Was it because of the hyper-literalism that the 
vav prefix must always be translated "and"? No, because he has omitted 
completely the vav prefix at the start of v.3 - which for me is a good 
reason to reject also Alter's exegesis by which vv.1-2 is a complex 
subordinate clause and prefer the traditional "In the beginning God 
created..." But we discussed that one at great length a few years ago. 
No, it seems that Alter is simply more interested in keeping his 
"quirky" literary style than in getting the substance of the translation 
correct.

--
Peter Kirk
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peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
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