Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 7/7/06, JAMES CHRISTIAN READ wrote:
> The following excerpt is from http://www.geocities.com/stmetanat/genesis1.htm
>
> It basically relates a theory of vowel pointing to
> support the theory that the author of Genesis 1 ripped
> off Marduk mythology.
>
> Here is the reasoning presented:
>
> BEGIN QUOTE
> "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" is only one of
> possible translations. When the word ברא is vowel-pointed as בָּרָא (bārā), 
> it is a
> verb meaning "he created". However, it is probable that the original 
> vowel-pointing
> was בְּרֹא (berō), which is a gerund meaning "creating"; in which case the
> verse translates as "in the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the
> earth". This provides a much clearer setting for what comes after.

This is unrelated to the Marduk part and Rashi in his commentary explicitly
writes "if you want to interpret it according to the straightforward
interpretation...
you should read 'br)$yt br) )lhym ...' as 'br)$yt brw) ...'"

> In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth, there was not
> a state of total nothingness or nihilum: there was a primeval realm of water 
> to
> be resolved into the reality of sea and sky we see today. The word tehōm,
> meaning "abyss", is an allusion to an ancient, pre-Biblical Babylonian myth.
> According to Babylonian mythology, the god Marduk fought the water-goddess
> Tiamat (=tehōm), slew her and cut her into two: the sea and the sky.
> END QUOTE

The word Tiamat is a perfect cognate of the Hebrew word Tehom.  The word
Tehom appears without the he before it (compare the word ha)arec at the end
of the verse), which suggests that it may be a proper name.  The possibility
of a proper name Tehom at this point of the creation narrative very much does
suggest the Babylonian myth or something of the sort.  So the allusion cannot
simply be disregarded.  But also, very little elaboration is provided about 
this
Tehom that it is not possible to say for sure or to say anything beyond a
recognition of the allusion.

Yitzhak Sapir
http://toldot.blogspot.com