Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

On 9 Jul 2006 at 15:56, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:

> On 7/8/06, JAMES CHRISTIAN READ wrote:
> > Yitzhak wrote:
> >  It is therefore significant that
> > the word tehom is used as a proper name in the right place (before
> > division of the seas).
> > END QUOTE
> >
> > JCR: I think this is an overstatement that may well be
> > quite a lot less significant than to imply a direct
> > relation with the tiamat myth. There is nothing in
> > the context whatsoever which personifies tehom and the
> > sense is very much of a thing rather than a being.
> >
> > The very phrase ' The earth was formless and void, and
> > darkness was over the surface of the deep' seems, in
> > my mind, to recall only thoughts of lifeless matter
> > that are yet to be prepared for the arrival of life.
> 
> The thing that you seem to be overlooking is that your
> translation adds a "the" that is not present in the Hebrew
> text.  This would be equivalent to you writing in English,
> "The earth was formless and void and darkness was over
> the surface of Deep."  Or "Abyss," or "Ocean."  It is used
> as a proper name.  The use of this specific word, as a
> proper name like this, at this place of the Creation story,
> just appears to be too coincidental.

So anywhere that a noun doesn't have the article, it must be used as a proper 
name?  In 
that case, maybe we'd better start translating 1:1 "When the god Reshit 
created the 
heavens and the earth."  T:HOWM is no more a proper name here than XO$EK is.  
English 
structure calls for inclusion of the article.  Hebrew did not.  Let's not 
read more into the 
difference than is actually there.

Dave Washburn
Encephaloriasis: That condition generated when the person you are dealing 
with is so 
incredibly stupid, you can actually feel your own brain cells drying up and 
flaking off.