Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] bara vs' bero in Genesis 1:1

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: dwashbur AT nyx.net
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] bara vs' bero in Genesis 1:1
  • Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2006 07:52:55 -0700



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.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page