Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

James:
My understanding of the verb היה is that it has much the meaning of
“become”. So verse three most literally could be translated as “And God
said, “Light, become!” and light became.” Awful English, but it gets the
idea across.

How best to render this idea into English is a translation question, not
necessarily Hebrew.

What I remember from history is that Wycliffe translated from the Vulgate,
while Tyndale directly from Hebrew.

Karl W. Randolph.