Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

karl,

in case of gen 1:1 i must side with jerry, since at that point in
the story the sky was still not separated from the land, hence 
still did not exist, making 1:1 NECESSARILY a summary of the entire 
chapter. consider also:

Genesis Chapter 22 בְּרֵאשִׁית
א  וַיְהִי, אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה, וְהָאֱלֹהִים, נִסָּה אֶת-אַבְרָהָם; 
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו, אַבְרָהָם וַיֹּאמֶר
הִנֵּנִי.       1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove 
Abraham,
and said unto him: 'Abraham'; and he said: 'Here am I.' 

here, too, "god proved abraham" is a summary of the entire chapter, while "and
said to him" is already the starting point of the more detailed narrative.
consider also:

Genesis Chapter 10 בְּרֵאשִׁית
א  וְאֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת בְּנֵי-נֹחַ, שֵׁם חָם וָיָפֶת; וַיִּוָּלְדוּ לָהֶם 
בָּנִים, אַחַר הַמַּבּוּל.     1 Now these are
the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and unto them
were sons born after the flood. 

"these are the generations..." is a summary, "and unto them..." is already
part of the detailed narrative.

etc etc
nir cohen

>> karl: There was a very ancient literary style in which the titular or 
>> summary
statement was at the end of a chapter or document, not the beginning. I’m
not the only one, but others, too, have noted that Genesis can be broken up
into several such chapters, with the summary “This is the bringing forth…”
as the closing statement. That makes the summary, titular verse of Genesis
1 to be Genesis 2:4.


> De: Jerry Shepherd <jshepherd53 AT gmail.com>
Para: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Data: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 20:29:55 -0600
Assunto: Re: [b-hebrew] Circle חוג

(2)  Ancient literary style also had titular and summary statements at the
beginning of the account as well; and this also true in many places of
Hebrew narrative.