Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Bowick <james AT bowick.com>]

The issue of pre-existent matter or ex nihilo creation is influenced
strongly by the reading of BR).  In the Masoretic text it is pointed BARA, a
Qal 3ms perfect (he created), however it is also possible to point it BORE,
a Qal ms participle (creating).  If BR) is read as a participle, then Gen
1:1 becomes a temporal clause, not a principle clause.  It would be
translated "In the beginning, when God was creating..."  Robert Holmstedt
presented a paper to the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies a couple of
years back that was published in  Vetus Testamentum (58 2008, 56-67) which
argued on linguistic grounds that BR) is more likely a participle.  Sadly, I
cannot remember the details of his argument, nor do I currently have access
to the article.  I think though, that this may pose a good starting point
for a discussion along the lines Stephen suggests.  Is anyone aware of
linguistic evidence on either side?

James Bowick
McMaster Divinity College

PS- this thread was [b-hebrew] B in Gen 1:1 (was Hebrew considerations)

On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 10:07 PM, Stephen Shead
<srshead+bh AT gmail.com<srshead%2Bbh AT gmail.com>
> wrote:
.......

> Secondly, I didn't mean to imply anything about the pre-existence or
> otherwise of the primeval waters, as presented in Gen 1. I'm not sure where
> you got that from in my response - nothing in my argument precludes either
> a
> pre-existent view or an ex nihilo view. (Actually, if people want to
> continue that debate, from a Hebrew grammar point of view, I'll listen in
> with great interest - though I'd suggest a new thread.)
>
> Stephen Shead
> Santiago, Chile
>
>