On 7/24/03 11:16 AM, "waldo slusher" <waldoslusher AT yahoo.com> wrote:Much as I respect Waltke and O'Connor, I am highly suspicious of interpretations which ascribe to a very common word a unique sense in just one occurrence. So, having seen your later posting, I am inclined to agree more with George Bush (the 19th century one, I would rarely be inclined to agree with the more recent two) though not entirely. "One day" means "one day". Well, in English we can start a list with "one day", then "the next day", then perhaps "the third day". But in 1:5 the focus is not that this day is the first of a sequence but rather that the evening and the morning make up a complete day. Perhaps the translation should be something like "one whole day", or just "one day". Then in 1:8 etc, where the Hebrew remains indefinite, "a second day". Then change to "the sixth day" at the end of the chapter as this wraps the whole thing up nicely. A very literal translation, I know, but I think it works.
A recent article I read indicates that the phrase at
the end of this verse, "day one", by virtue of the
fact that "one" lacks the definite article, makes it a
Cardinal number.
Bruce Waltke & M. O'Connor page 274:
"The indefinite noun plus )xd has a definite sense in the opening chapter of
Genesis: ywm )xd 'the first day' (Gen. 1:5); this pattern is found nowhere
else-- even the rest of the account uses indefinite nouns with ordinal
numbers (Gen 1:8,13, etc.)."
greetings,
Clay Bartholomew
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