To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: RE: Light
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 20:57:04 -0500
<Bill>
>I have always read "light" being used in the Genesis context as meaning
"energy".
<LM>
Would that be an anachronistic reading?
<Bill>
Gen 1 records the creation of man, so the source of the information was God,
not man. The concepts are bigger than ancient Hebrew could accommodate, but,
while I don't "need" it to read that way, it seems to fit the physics. I
mean, if we really understood our physics, we might conclude that the whole
shooting match is actually based on light, since some theories describe all
matter as organized energy.
I don't feel the need to insist that the one who penned Genesis understood
it. And while we have deep insights into energy and matter, we have not
plumbed its depths. I doubt our current language would suffice to express
the profound relationships of various physical phenomenon, did we understand
it.
I do see the term referring to light, but sense that it relates to all of
energy, just as the reference to "He formed the stars also" to include
nebulae, comets, etc.