Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

James:

On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 4:21 AM, James Christian
<jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>wrote:

> (my university email account doesn't seem to be able to send anything other
> than ASCII, I made a gmail account and tried again. Sorry for the double
> posting and any confusion caused)
>
> I got a gmail account for the same reason.


> Hi all,
>
> the first pe separated paragraph of Genesis (as you all know) is Genesis
> 1:1-5
>
> בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשך על פני תהום
> ורוח
> אלהים מרחפת על פני המים ויאמר אלהים יהי אור ויהי אור וירא אלהים את האור כי
> טוב ויבדל אלהים בין האור ובין החשך  ויקרא אלהים לאור יום ולחשך קרא לילה
> ויהי
> ערב ויהי בקר יום אחד
>
> 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 ἐν ἀρχῇ 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.
>
> Most creation myths from around the world (so I’ve been told, and a few
that I have seen) start with pre-existing matter that the gods then form
into the world. Hence the belief.

However, ראשית R)$YT has the meaning of first, beginning, used also of the
first fruits of the harvest. There is no mention of pre-existing matter


> 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?).
>
> I need to look at this one some more. There are verses that indicate that
God created out of pre-existing material, such as man from the dust of the
earth.


> בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ 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 שמים and ארץ 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.
>
> I don’t see where you get this, as the theme of the chapter is the creation
of the physical universe.


> והארץ היתה תהו ובהו 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.
>
> Um, this is a point of contention. BHW is used only three times, all three
times parallel to THW.

THW is used in Isaiah 44:9 for a physical idol which has form. In Isaiah
45:18 it is used in contrast to being dwelt in, i.e. not created lifeless
but teaming with life. From these and other verses I understand that THW
means “lifeless”, not “formless”.


> וחשך על פני תהום ורוח '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.
>
> THWM is used in the plural in Psalms 33:7, 107:26, 135:6 and Proverbs 3:20,
indicating, along with its other uses, that it was considered just a noun
referring to the deep seas. Other religions may have considered it a proper
name, but not the Bible.


> ורוח אלהים מרחפת על פני המים This phrase is interesting. How best
> to translate רוח Literally, it means breath and traditionally the phrase
> רוח
> אלהים 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'.
> מרחפת 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?).
>
> While RWX is not often personified in Tanakh, there are a few cases that
can be recognized, such as Isaiah 48:16, 61:1, Psalm 51:11. This can also be
taken as a personification in Genesis 1:2 in that the RWX )LHYM is involved
in an action.

The action is apparently coming down to rest upon, as an eagle upon its
chicks (Deuteronomy 32:11) (an eagle is a big, heavy bird, it does not
hover, flutter or move back and forth as it settles itself on its chicks),
and as the bones (body) of a drunkard as he sleeps off his alcohol (Jeremiah
23:9).
 .

> ויבדל אלהים בין האור ובין החשך 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?
>
> Genesis 1 is a bunch of headlines, while omitting the small type. So now we
try to fill in the details from reading between the lines. What was the
original light like? Was it all pervasive? Did this separation indicate a
focussing of the light so that shadows could be cast? When you get into
physics, even more questions pop up.


> ויהי ערב ויהי בקר '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?
>
> Linguistically, this is just the evening and morning of a typical 24 hour
day.


> יום אחד 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?
>
> Many people have noticed that and asked questions, but I have yet to see an
answer. Could this be a contrast against R)$WN “first” as the section
started out with a word from the same root?


> ויהי ערב ויהי בקר יום אחד Finally, could this be a construct form? That is
> to say could this be 'And there was sunset and sunrise of day one?'
>
> Makes sense.


> James Christian
> ______________________


Karl W. Randolph.