Dear Prof Niccacci,
Thank you for your clarification about these double sentences. I am
beginning to see that your suggestion is a possible parsing of Gen 1:1-2,
although I note that in none of the examples you give does the apodosis
start with waw and a noun followed by the verb, as in verse 2. So I still
see you parsing as a rather forced one. For there is very little, only
perhaps the pointing on one vowel (the very first one!), which might suggest
to readers that they should understand the text according to this rare
construction rather than in the much more obvious sense "In the beginning
God created..." And we of course have evidence from LXX and Vulgate that
that is exactly how it was understood in ancient times. I think we need to
be very careful before preferring a construction which is a priori so
improbable over one which seems so obvious.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.