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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] origin of evil
  • Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2006 10:44:12 -0500

Dear Charles,


HH: The phrase implies the creation of light. The form is not an
imperative but a jussive. So it is something like: "Let light exist."
The same wording in used in Gen 1:6 about the creation of the sky, and
in 1:14 for the creation of the great lights in the sky, the sun, moon,
and stars.


Please be kind and tell me the technical difference between the imperative
and jussive which mandates the word "exist" as a creative act.




HH: The imperative of HYH begins with an H in both the masculine and feminine forms. The fact that the form in Gen 1:3, 6, and 14 begins with a Y tells us that it is based on the imperfect. It is a shortened imperfect and so a jussive. A jussive is a third person kind of imperative that implies an idea like "let," whereas an imperative is second person form. The verb is HYH, and its second major meaning, according to Brown, Drive, and Briggs, is "come into being." You don't have to use the word "exist." You could say "appear,""arise," "come into being," or even "come." You could say, "Let light be." The usage of the same verb form in verses 6 and 14 is demonstrating creation, just as it is here. The context is the world's creation. There was evidently no light in the created universe until God created it.



If, as the texts do say, God created darkness and evil,
one could equally infer that both light and good previously existed. But the
text does not address either issue.




HH: The text is informing us about the creation of the world. So we should not assume something exists until the text tells us God created it.



You said "if there was no light",
infering that there was not. But if God is Light and He always existed and
He is immutable, then light, likewise, always existed.




HH: Well, it evidently did not exist in the created universe until God created it.


Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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