Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

steven,

quite a few chapters/paragraphs of genesis may be seen as an "initial 
title", or a statement of intent, followed by a more detailed account. 
the "title", though, does not always qualify as a true summary 
of the events which follow.
   1:1, 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 6:14, 7:1, 9:1, 10:1 (this chapter uses also 
   "initial and terminal subtitles"), 18:1, 22:1, 36:1 (with subtitles), 
   37:2, 49:1.
i imagine other books may contain more examples.

as to the vav, it may very well be that what you call 
"sounding correct in english" is partly the very contribution 
of the king james style...though i admit that "so/and so" is often used 
as initial in speech, against the grammarians' recommendations.

the decision to use the yiqtol or qatal form is contextual, and so 
it is difficult to make a general statement on how the text should 
follow the "title". i think that the principle is that the ensuing 
text should remain "BH-correct" if the title is simply deleted.

nir cohen

[Steve Miller:] In v1 God created the heavens and the earth. In the following
verses, the planet earth already existed.  So, v1 cannot be a summary, but an
action. In vv9-10 He made the dry land and named that "earth".  That is a
different meaning of the word earth: the planet earth in v1, and the dry land
in v10. Similarly in v1, the heavens is the universe, but in v8, God made the
atmosphere around the earth and named that "heavens" also.  "Day" has 3
meanings in Gen 1-2:4.

even if you are technically correct, i still see in 1:1 a 
title of the whole material of gen 1-2 (most biblical interpreters 
see in the "creation story" in gen 1-2 a six day process). 
(see especially in this context 2:1). also, ch 2:4-24 overlaps with 
ch. 1 and provides more detail.

>
> 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.

[Steve Miller:] This does seem to be a summary followed by "and". I didn't
know such a case existed. Thanks for finding this.
The "and"'s here in both of your examples are vav-consecutives, while in 1:2
it is an "and" attached to a noun, which has a different meaning. The
vav-consecutive, which is much more common, continues the main story line,
while a sentence starting with "and"-noun indicates a break in the story line,
often indicating a chapter break.

>>> An odd thing about this verse is that here we have a summary followed by
an "and", which should not be allowed in English, yet it sounds fine in
English. Yet, if I were to change the structure to be more like Gen 1:1-2:
And it came to pass after these things that God proved Abraham. And Abraham
was 100 years old. Then it doesn't sound right in English. The "and" 
needs to be removed. I don't know why. It just doesn't sound right.

> 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.

[Steve Miller:] Here the whole verse could be taken as the summary.  Then it
is not followed by "and".

Here also 10:1 sounds fine in English, even taking 10:1a as the summary and
10:1b as the details. But if you change the structure to be like Gen 1:1-2:
And these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. And
Japheth was 60 years old.
Then it doesn't sound right.

>
> etc etc
[Steve Miller:] If you have more examples of opening summaries followed by
"and", I'd like to see them.

> 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.
[Steve Miller:] I agree. Gen 2:4 summarizes Gen 1. It does not summarize the
verses which follow, which are details about the creation of man.