Michael J. Alter on בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית in Genesis 1:1 being in the construct state

Citing the medieval Jewish exegete Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) as a witness for understanding ‎בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית  in Gen 1:1 as being in the construct state, Michael J. Alter wrote:

I believe that bereshit is in the construct, as in in the beginning of (bereshit) the reign of Jehoiakim (Jer. 26:1). Don’t ask how a word in the construct can be connected to the verb in the perfect. This presents no problem, for we find that very case in the verse When the Lord spoke at first with Hosea (Hos. 1:2), and in the verse the city where David encamped (Isa. 29:1). (Iben Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch [trans. H. Norman Strickman; Brooklyn: Menorah, 1988], 22 as cited by Michael J. Alter, Why the Torah Begins with the Letter Beit [Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998], 57)

Elsewhere, quoting the work of Jack M. Sasson, we read:

[T]his exegesis is really beyond dispute: first, because it is supported by grammar and syntax; second, because other creation narratives similarly open with temporal or circumstantial clauses; and third, because the first of God’s creative injunctions does not come until v. 3. (Jack M. Sasson, “Time . . . to Begin” in Sha’arei Talmon, eds. Michael Fishbane and Emanuel Tov [Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1992], pp. 183-94, as cited by Alter, Ibid., 63)

In an editorial note for the above (Ibid., p. 63 n. 36), Alter offers the following helpful note:

All the examples of BRASYT are in temporal clauses, and the examples of RASYT (Reshit) in the absolute state (with or without prefixed propositions) are found only when the term is used in ceremonial contexts; see Skinner, Genesis, 12-13. A bibliography on the traditional exegesis of Gen. 1:1 can be found in B.W. Anderson, “Introduction: Mythopoetic and Theological Dimensions of the Biblical Creation Faith,” in Creation in the Old Testament (Philadelphia: 1984) 23-24. Or more details on the controversy, see C. Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Commentary (Minneapolis, 1984), pp. 93-98. The Book of Hosea begins with a similar construction (v. 2), which is correctly rendered in NJPSV: “When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea . . .”

Such has important ramifications for exegeting Gen 1:1, as the construct state supports the growing scholarly rejection of creation ex nihilo in favour of creation ex materia, something commensurate with Latter-day Saint theology. For a discussion of Gen 1:1 and other texts, see:

James Patrick Holding refuted on Creation Ex Nihilo

Blake T. Ostler, Out of Nothing: A History of Creation ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought