Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Herman Meester wrote:

> Dear Peter,To be sure, I do not think the masoretes are never wrong, or that 
> theyare divinely inspired. I just think it is highly unlikely they wouldnot 
> have known exactly what they were handing down to us in this case;we are 
> talking about the first verses of Tora, not something somewherein Chronicles.
> I admit, "בראשית BR)$YT" may have been meant as "in the beginning". Myintent 
> was, however, to respect MT first, and then try to make senseof it; only if that really doesn't 
> work we could look for extra-MTsolutions, like emendations and the like.
> Don't you think by the way, the parallel with Gen 2,4-7 is remarkable?It supports 
> "my" understanding of Gen 1,1-3 very well.
> About LXX, it's true it's an old source, yet it's a translation madein Egypt 
> for a Greek audience. The translators and how good theirHebrew was we may 
> never know, and how much did they adjust the Hebrewtext to fit their theology?
> About my theology with the "light" and so on, I do agree with you: wefirst 
> have the text and its syntax, and then theology. However, I didstart wih the former and 
> then saw it produced the latter. You see, I'mnot much of a theologian at all ;)
> RegardsHerman
>  
HH: There are verses where there is a preposition followed by a noun in 
the construct, followed by a verb that seems to be in relation to the 
noun (1 Chron. 29:3: "above all I provided"), but they don't seem to 
require the insertion of "of" in English the way Gen 1:1 would by your 
view. Another example might be Prov 17:4 ("before a quarrel breaks 
out"), but here the preposition and noun function together as a preposition.

HH: Another difficulty with your view is that it gives an imperfect 
meaning to the perfect verb arb, it seems to me. There is a process of 
creating, and at the beginning of it something happens. Also, where 
there is a verb in a construct relationship to a prepositional phrase 
and a possible modification with "of" in English, it usually involves an 
infinitive, such as we see at Gen 2:4: "in the day of the Lord's making 
earth and heaven."

Yours,
Harold Holmyard