Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi all,

the first pe separated paragraph of Genesis (as you all know) is Genesis 1:1-5

?????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ???  
???? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ????? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????  
????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ????? ????? ??? ???? ???? ???? ????? ????? ????  
??? ????? ??? ???? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???

Even such a simple section has many points worthy of discussion. The  
form brwyt has traditionally been translated as 'In the beginning'  
following the Greek  ?? ???? and the Latin 'In principio'. It has been  
suggested (does anybody have the reference for this?) that this is a  
mistranslation and that the sense is not of an ultimate beginning but  
merely of a declaration of the initial state of things before Elohim  
set about creating stuff.

BR) has traditionally been understood as a synonym of 'make' but used  
exclusively with God and therefore an act of creation from nothing (ex  
nihilo). This view has also been challenged. It has been proposed, if  
memory serves correctly, to be a derivative of a root meaning of  
cutting the shape as a sculptor chisels a piece of wood (again, does  
anybody have the exact reference for this?).

?????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??? ???? has traditionally been translated  
as 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'. This  
translation I challenge as a misrepresentation of what the original  
Hebrew actually said. The terms ???? and ??? are most commonly used  
with the sense of 'sky' and 'land' from the human perspective of what  
is generally above and below and I think this was the sense of the  
original Hebrew.

????? ???? ??? ???? This phrase we have discussed many times with  
respect to the traditional understanding of the earth being formless  
and waste in its initial state of creation.

???? ?? ??? ???? 'And it was dark on the surface of Tehom'. This  
phrase is often used as argument that the creation account is an  
adaptation of the Babylonian creation myth involving Tiamat. While  
such a vain discussion can have much comical value it seems clear to  
me that 'Tehom' was the proper name of the universal ocean that  
covered the land in its initial creation state.

???? ????? ????? ?? ??? ???? This phrase is interesting. How best to  
translate ???? Literally, it means breath and traditionally the phrase  
??? ????? has been translated as 'God's spirit'. It has been suggested  
(does anybody have the reference?) that this is an idiomatic phrase  
meaning something like 'great wind', 'really strong wind' or 'gale  
force wind'. ????? is a difficult form to analyse occurring only once  
in the corpus. Traditional translations include 'hovering', 'moving  
back and forth'. If we were to go with the 'great wind' translation  
perhaps we could theorise a 'and a great wind was blowing on the  
surface of the waters' translation.

In any case, it would seem that the general picture being built up is  
of an initial land and sky in total darkness. The land being covered  
with a vast ocean and either God's breathe or a great wind active in  
some way on the surface of the water (do we imagine this being visible  
by disturbance on the surface of the water?).

????? ????? ??? ??? Traditionally we translation this as 'And God said  
"Let there be light"'. The 'let there be light' idiom we owe to  
William Tyndale who coined the phrase structure 'let there be...'.  
Personally, I don't think this is particularly good English (at least  
not in our modern world). I see this as a direct command 'Make  
light!'. The Greek of the LXX agrees with the thought of a direct  
command using the verb 'to make' but uses the passive version '???  
????? ? ???? ???????? ???'. In English, we get the awkward translation  
of 'light be made' which can be made more palatable by a return to the  
'let...' structure 'let light be made'.

We then go on to see that light was made and Elohim said that it was  
good ???? ??? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?? ???.

????? ????? ??? ???? ???? ???? We are told that Elohim 'made a  
division' between the light and the darkness. I'm not sure of this  
translation. What does it mean to 'make a division'? I feel that this  
may be an idiomatic phrase but I'm not sure. Could it mean that Elohim  
'defined' light and darkness?

???? ??? ???? ??? 'And there was evening and there was morning'. This  
phrase provokes many questions especially seeing that the Sun had not  
yet been made. What exactly does this phrase mean? We know that the  
Hebrew day began and ended with sunset and went from the evening of  
one day to the next. Does this phrase really suggest a literal sunset  
and sunrise when there was yet no Sun? Did the Hebrews not even  
associate the phenomenon of daylight as originating with the Sun? Or  
is this just a poetic way of marking the beginning and end of one of  
Elohim's workloads?

??? ??? Unlike following sections this section ends with a cardinal  
number rather than an ordinal number. Literally 'day one' rather than  
'the first day'. I've never really been sure why. Any suggestions?

???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? Finally, could this be a construct form?  
That is to say could this be 'And there was sunset and sunrise of day  
one?'

James Christian

--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.