Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

James:

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 1:26 PM, James Christian
<jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>wrote:

> Hi Karl,
>
> 2009/10/15 K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
>
>> James and Steve:
>> I can see the question as far as how best to render these ideas into
>> English.
>>
>> But for the Hebrew, I can’t recognize your questions. Grammatically it is
>> simple, common Hebrew, other than the subject matter. God commands the
>> light
>> to come into existence, and it does.
>>
>
> Are you suggesting a vocative understanding here? i.e. That God is talking
> to the light?
>

Not at all! The light didn’t exist before God commanded to become into
existence.

As I understand the vocative is that the light would have had to have
pre-existence to the command. I understand the text as being God commanding
and then the light existed.


>
> Then how can you side with a 'Let there be...' translation? If this is not
> funny sounding in Hebrew then common sense would dictate that its
> translation should not be funny sounding in any natural language.
>

On the contrary, what may be natural in one language may be quite awkward
and contrived in another. Common sense is contradicted by actual practice.
In this question, we are dealing with English, not Hebrew.


>
> James Christian
>
>
>  Karl W. Randolph.