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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Gen. 2:16-17 :: idiom or clumsy lie

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Gen. 2:16-17 :: idiom or clumsy lie
  • Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 20:24:47 -0500

Notice that there are three instances of BR): (1) 'to create', as in Gen 1,1; (2) 'to shred' , as in Ez 23,47; and (3) 'to be large, to be great', from which BARI), as in Gen 41,2, is derived.

The root BRH means 'to eat=to devour=to tear and shred food', either in the mouth or in the pot. Compare: "to break bread".

The root PRH means 'to bring forth or create offsprings, to spread out'. It is related to the roots: PRX, PRQ, PRQ etc.

The root PR( means 'to ruffle, to be unruly, to be disorderly, to be fractious, to be wild'.

The root PR) means 'to be wild' or to be in the state PR( .

To my utter chagrin I am intellectually unfit to enter into a deep discussion as to what 'create' means, or what it means to turn "nothing=no+thing" into "something=some+thing".
Isaac Fried
On Dec 5, 2006, at 11:10 AM, K Randolph wrote:

When looking at the meanings of the words, as they are actually used
in Tanakh, that case is hard to sustain.

On 12/4/06, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
Inasmuch as we are dealing with Genesis, it is worth while noticing
that ברא, BARA, which is rendered in English: 'create', and which
is the first verb (root) of the entire bible, is a variant of פרע
PARA, 'disperse'. There is nothing in this verb (root) to indicate
that God made "something" out of "nothing".

Other relatives of ברא are ברה, פרא, פרה.
Isaac Fried

ברא, BR) means to create, set up, though not every time something from
nothing (the context, e.g. Genesis 1:1–2, gives us the something out
of nothing).
ברה, BRH means to be fed, other than similar sound, very different meaning.
פרא, PR) is a happax whose meaning is uncertain Hosea 8:9, the noun
refers to a wild donkey that lives in the desert. This could actually
be the noun referring to the action.
פרה, PRH to produce fruit, i.e. be fruitful.
פרע, PR( to loosen, as in to set free from restraint.

Just because words sound similar does not mean that they originally
came from the same root.

Karl W. Randolph.
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